Battle for Earth
by BlackKnight92
Summary: The Burning Legion is preparing for an invasion of a new world. Its people are divided, they have no magical abilities. A world that the Legion should easily conquer. Or are they awakening a sleeping giant. Rated T for now. I don't own anything you will recognize from Warcraft universe, that belongs to Blizzard.
1. Prologue

"Tell me why shouldn't I destroy you for disturbing me in such a time", said the man wearing a black and purple robe, his face covered by a shadow created by his deep hood. On his shoulders set two large metal pauldrons, on their ends, waiving on the wind that wasn't there, were black crow feathers. In the middle they were connected by a metal plate on which stood a large blood red gem, which stood directly over the man's heart.

"I am sorry for disturbing your work master", said Bealdar. Even when he was in front of his lord by magical means, Bealdar the Seeker was afraid of his master, as all Eredar were, for before him stood no mere mortal, but the Lord of the Burning Legion, Destroyer of worlds, the fallen Titan, Sargeras.

"But I assure you, that I wouldn't have done so if there was no good reason for doing so", the Seeker knew that no matter how many words he said to save himself from dark Titan's wrath, he would cease to exist if Sargeras so wished. But if they just prolonged the inevitable, the fallen Ereder would speak even if it only bought him a few minutes.

"A world of great interest has been found, yet it's existence has been hidden from you", Bealdar finished, deciding that moving to the point was a safer bet for his continued existence.

"Continue", ordered his master, his voice filled with great power and unfathomable rage even when he spoke through the body of a human, which served as a vessel for his spirit.

"The records were hidden in the library on Argus, I have stumbled upon them by mare chance. What cough my interest was that the world was found by one of our ships that traverse the cosmos, which stumbled upon the world because it had to reenter reality because of an engine failure, not by searching the nether for magical disturbances as we have done so far. Because of this reason it was Archimonde that got the news first and hid his findings." His Lord was clearly displeased by this revelations, but Bealdar still allowed himself to finish his speech angrily, for it was his job as a Seeker to find new worlds to conquer and Archimonde completely bypassed him. Now it was time for revenge, and if he was lucky he would finally advance in the legion's ranks.

"Show me", Sargeras ordered.

From his cloak Bealdar pulled out an orb, on its surface were engraved runes of the demonic origin. When the dark titan touched the orb it changed from its ethereal form to a solid one, the runes lit up and images were shown, their light illuminating the vast study they were occupying.

Images showed a world, third from its sun, around it only one moon circled. It had six great land masses. Then images shifted and showed the people that inhabited the planet, there were only humans, no other races. And magic, there was none. This is what got Bealdar's attention in the first place, no wonder he couldn't find this world when there was no magic on it. The fact that it was the humans that inhabited the planet confused him even more.

During eons of the Burning Legions crusade against the order, which Titans tried to spread, they came across many worlds that were visited by his master's brethren. Usually on those planets there was multitude of races that inhabited them. But Humans, Dwarfs, Giants and sometimes Elves were almost a constant for these worlds, wherever the Titans went, these races were seeded.

Even the fact that this world was inhabited only by one race wasn't so strange, sometimes one race wiped out all the other races, but there were always ruins to be found if such a thing occurred, here there were none. One more thing about Titan visited worlds was that they were always filled with massive amounts of magic, and this one had none, suggesting that Titans never came here, yet Humans, a race that was clearly being seeded by Titans throughout the galaxy, was present.

And that is what got Bealdar's interest in the first place, some kind of secret, some kind of knowledge was hidden on this world, and he wanted it, for knowledge was power, and power was everything in the ranks of the Burning Legion.

Looking up the Seeker saw the images showing men wearing plate armor and riding horses, marching to war. Armies numbering tens of thousands crashed on the world's surface, what he saw was a world divided, an easy prey, made even easier for there will be no mages to support the knights that would soon crash with innumerable legions of demons.

When the images stopped the destroyer of worlds decided to speak, "When was this recorded?"

"Six hundred years ago, master", that was not a lot of time, surely not much has changed on that world.

"Do you have any other observations of this world?"

"The planets land masses are one of the largest we have encountered so far, and its population is by far the largest, also the countries on the far western and eastern sides of the largest continent are the most developed countries of this world. There is no magic on this planet so we can't make someone open a portal for us invade through, we will need to use our fleet to get there, and only then we will be able to open portals, my lord", Bealdar finished a bit more energetically then he intended, while recalling his knowledge about the Legion's fleet.

The fleet, and its ships were manly used to transport artifacts, which were to large or unstable to be sent by portals, from one world controlled by the Legion to another. And if Sargeras approved of his plan, for he needed his approval to rip the fleet from Archimonde's control, it would be used for the first time to transport troops.

"I see", Sargeras, wearing the flesh of a man, said but he was not finished, "and I assume that you would like to lead my fleet for this invasion", a small smirk spread on Bealdar's lips, he was ready to reply when his master decided to continue.

"Do so, this people seems an easy adversary to beat. But know that you are being sent because Kil'jaedan and Archimonde are needed to prepare a new invasion on Azeroth, while this man," he gestured to the body he was possessing, "has to open a portal for the Horde to start its invasion", he made a small pause before he finished, "And I guess you know the price of failure."

Bealdar simply nodded.

"Be gone", his master told him and he complied, canceling his magical connection and his ethereal form disappeared. It would take him a few years to gather the whole fleet and a bit more to convince few of the power figures to join him on this expedition, but what are few years compared to eternity of power, that he would gain by conquering this planet.

_Yes, this is going to be easy._ He thought. Oh how wrong he was.


	2. chapter 1

Before you start reading I would like to tell you that English isn't my first language so if you find some repeated mistakes please tell me. Constrictive reviews will be much appreciated, I thank you in advance.

One more thing, this story starts few years after the Dark Portal was open, so on Azeroth the first war is at its end. Keep that in mind as you read an review this story.

* * *

They stood in darkness, in perfect formation of five by five, behind them one more group of exactly the same formed men, they stood in front of him, they stood in perfect silence.

_Men? Not men, these are boys that stand here_, he told himself, _A boy given command over boys_, he thought darkly.

They stood and he watched them, looking for anything that they might lack, so far so good. Behind him was a transport aircraft, An-26, its ramp lowered, engines silent, electronics off, it too stood and waited for zero hour.

Sparing a glance to the left he saw his captain, in front of him fifty men as well, carrying the same gear as those in front of himself. They had parachutes on their backs, rifles over their shoulders, ammunition strapped to their waists, on them there were grenades hanging together with a single tin can, in it a gas mask.

None knew what they were up against, no one knew what to expect, all they were told was that the enemy was coming and that there were many. Duty called and they answered.

Again he looked at his captain, captain Marko Stefanovic, a thirty seven year old man, only veteran in this group of solders, he fought during the wars in the nineties, when he and the rest of the troop were only children. Stefanovic lifted his sight from his watch and looked directly at him.

"Five more minutes, Jovanovic, have patience", captain said to him.

"Yes sir", he replied.

It was the captain that had the command over these one hundred boys, while Jovanovic as a lieutenant was second in command, but for now he led only ten men. His duties would increase only if Marko deemed so necessary or he died, Jovanovic hoped he didn't, without him they would be lost, he would be lost.

"Don't look into the sky private", lieutenant ordered sharply, said private immediately lowered his gaze from the stars above to the hard asphalt that made this runway.

"We don't want any of you losing your sight before we make contact with the enemy", Jovanovic continued, feeling as he was a father scolding his children. And children they were, the oldest was barely twenty two and the youngest was nineteen. All of them were pulled out of the military academy and brought here to fight for the fatherland, or fight for all of mankind as some politicians called it.

Jovanovic himself was twenty six and it was two years ago that he finished the military academy and joined the army. He remembers his grand dreams of becoming a general while he was there, hell he even dreamed of conquering the world, of becoming next Napoleon, or Cesar, or maybe Alexander the Great, someone whose name would be remembered for thousands of years. But his dreams were shattered when he entered the army, rising in rank was slow and hard process, his superiors told him that he had the talent and ability to become a colonel by thirty, and if he was lucky a general by forty.

All of that was useless now, all of the hard work he put into studying, into training, to become faster, stronger and smarter, for he lacked something the lot before him lacked as well and only captain had, experience.

_Well, we are going to get a lot of that soon enough_, Jovanovic thought.

He looked at his watch, it was mechanical, given to him and all other officers just for this occasion, and it showed 4:03 AM, two more minutes.

Lifting his gaze he looked to the south east, in the direction of the city of Kraljevo, he couldn't see it, all the light they had was coming from the moon covered by clouds and the city's lights were off, along with all the lights in the rest of the valley, together with all the lights on the planet. The whole world was dark and silent, and anticipated the inevitable.

Again he took a look at fifty before him, he eyed their faces and eyes looking for any kind of emotions on them, emotions that spoke volumes that couldn't be spoken through words. There was anxiety, worry, even excitement, but most dominant was fear.

'Good' Jovanovic thought as he remembered one of his father's lectures.

"_Fear son, fear is the most important feeling a solder can have. It is the fear that helps him survive the battle, it is fear that helps him perform his duty. The fear of death, the fear for one's family is what should be the driving force of the solder, because only through that kind of fear will the solder be ready to lay down his life for the family he left to protect. Without it men are no longer solders but beasts, demons of hate that devour everything before them, such men have to be put down as beasts that they have become, for they will destroy until there is nothing left to destroy. Do you understand me son?"_

"_Yes sir", he replied, his voice that of a child, he was only seven._

"_That is my good little solder." _

Lieutenant Jovanovic woke from his short daydream and looked at his watch, it was 4:05.

_Soon,_ he said to himself and looked to his right, there stood eighteen groups of fifty solders and in front of them were eighteen An-26 transport aircraft. They stood and waited in perfect order and silence, veil of darkness their best friend, they stood and they waited.

Last seconds felt like life times, Jovanovic was holding his breath, suppressing his urge to look up. Whole eternities passed before humanities first response to the alien invasion made itself known.

All of a sudden the whole sky became blindingly bright, as the first light started to recede second appeared, then the third and the forth. It continued like this for several minutes from horizon to horizon, and just like it suddenly appeared, the light that illuminated the whole valley, disappeared.

Moments later sky was filled with hundreds, no thousands of meteors that burned out in the atmosphere, but some were still able to reach the ground.

"EMP passed by now, start the engines and get inside" shouted the colonel on the other side of the runway. Jovanovic repeated the command and turned on his radio, hearing a slight static from his earpiece. He entered the transporter last and set on the seat closest to the doors, just as they were closing and engines starting.

As soon as they were airborne he heard Marko's voice over the radio, "Get ready men, enemy landings have been confirmed, we are executing plan number seventeen, we are going to Kosovo."

* * *

Two days earlier.

He woke up completely pleased with himself. He had a pleasant dream, it was about an angel, he was coming home and the angel waited for him, welcomed him with a kiss, gave him a diner befitting of kings and finally made love to him. An angel that loved him and he loved back.

Jovanovic looked to his left, and there she was, still asleep, a smile on her lips, those beautiful plump red lips. With his right hand he removed few strands of her light brown hair from her face, revealing a small nose, there were no imperfections on her face, she was perfect, she was his, and he was hers.

Slowly he removed his arm from underneath her, careful not to wake her. She mumbled something incomprehensive in her sleep, but he knew what. Lining over her he kissed her on the forehead.

"I will be back soon"

He put on some pants and went to the living room which served as a kitchen and dining room as well. Their apartment, no his it was still only his but soon it will be theirs, he hoped, was painfully small but they were happy, and that was more then he could ask for.

From the fridge he took two eggs and started frying them, on top them he added some cheese and leek, he smeared some butter on two toasts and filled a glass with orange juice. He put everything on a trey and walked into the bedroom.

"You are such a bad boy Dusan, for making a girl wait", the angel playfully scolded him, her ocean blue eyes shining with joy.

"I am terribly sorry Tamara, the eggs were putting quite a resistance on the frying pan", Dusan answered trying to look guilty, but failing miserably as both of them burst into laughter.

He put the tray down, and she pulled him in for a kiss. Their tongues danced around one another for a few minutes until they separated to take a breath.

"It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back."

"How long do you have now?"

"A week."

"That's not much."

"I know, but after two more months I can get a desk job in the ministry, then we can be together every day."

"I hope that happens."

"Me too."

As they finished their short conversation, Tamara started munching her breakfast while Dusan picked disregarded clothes around the room. _What a kill joy_, Jovanovic thought, as a young officer he was frequently changing bases where he was stationed, thus it was rare for him to be home. This time he was stationed with 3th army brigade at Nis for two months. He returned home for his one week leave, planning to make most of it, where he will be stationed next was still unknown.

"What time is it?" Tamara asked.

"14:30" Dusan answered looking at his wrist watch, _Damn we overslept_, a smile found its way to his lips, he knew perfectly well why they overslept.

"O my god, o my god", Tamara all but screamed, "I am going to be late", she continued, panic evident in her movement as she tried to get dressed with haste.

"What hell has gotten into you, where are you going to be late?"

"The test, I have a test in 3, oh god I am so screwed."

"Get dressed I am driving"

It was a beautiful summer day in Belgrade, there was not one cloud on the sky, sun was shining as brightly as ever, and the wind was slowly blowing taking the heat away. But Dusan barely noticed any of this as he drove like a maniac, Tamara beside him reading her notes for the last time before the big test.

Jovanovic cursed for not having a better car, for the small Yugo barely kept up with the amount of force he pressed the gas pedal with. After twenty minutes of zigzagging through city traffic he finally pressed the brakes stopping the car in its tracks, in front of Faculty of Philology.

"There and you have whole five minutes to spare", he said, glad that they actually arrived alive and safe.

"Thanks", Tamara said, gave him a quick kiss and bolted out.

Tamara's exam would last for three hours, so he had a lot of time to prepare for today's self imposed mission. Dusan bought everything he needed from a local supermarket and went home. Once there he started making diner, he never knew how to make food look nice on a plate but he at least knew how to make it. Tamara would appreciate the gesture, he hoped.

It was half past six when he was finished, on the table sat a large rousted chicken, around it young potatoes smeared in the souse that was dripping from flightless bird, beside it a bowl of salad and a bottle of wine. Jovanovic didn't have wine glasses so he had to borrow them from a neighbor. All of that was lit by two red candles, all that was left to do was to wait for her to return.

Minutes that passed felt like hours, every moment making him more nervous. Thoughts like where is she, did something happen, is she ok, found their way towards his brain. He knew that thinking like that was no good, but as much as he tried he couldn't suppress them.

He bolted upright when bell rang, he marched to the door like he was on parade, his palms sweaty, mouth dry as a desert. He opened the door.

"Something smells nice", Tamara said right away as she entered, "Did you make diner?"

Dusan had a speech, a perfect speech to make this occasion perfect, he planned every step of the way to make this moment special. All of that went out the window, because of his nervousness he couldn't say anything and thus Tamara spoke first, throwing his thought process in complete chaos.

_No plan survives contact with the enemy, improvise!_

"Y-yea", he answered weakly.

_That is the best you could do, damn you are a moron_, Dusan scolded himself, silently wishing he could throw himself into the deepest pit he could find.

While he was thinking about his own stupidity, Tamara made her way to the living room, "Oh my god, this is so beautiful".

Jovanovic made his way to the room and found her in the middle of the room lit only by candlelight. Tamara turned around and gave him a small kiss on the lips, thanking him for everything. Dusan pulled the chair to help her sit, then he sliced a piece of the chicken for her and put some of the potatoes in her plate. Only then he allowed himself to sit down and put something into his own plate, he found a music channel on TV, music was slow but had a happy rhythm.

They ate in silence for couple of minutes until Dusan broke it, "How did you do on the test?"

"Excellent, tomorrow I am to have an oral test", she answered happily.

"I am happy for you", he said a smile on his face, "excuse me", he added and went to the hallway opening the top shelf of a small locker. In it was a small purple box, beside it a picture of his parents and himself, his mother and father stood proudly, he was between them a school bag on his back. It was the only picture he had left of his parents. He took the box.

"Wish me luck", he whispered to the picture.

Returning to the living room, he saw Tamara watching a spot on TV, Dusan caught her attention as he kneeled beside her.

"Tamara Pavlovic will you marry me?" he meant every word he said, in that single sentence he purred every emotion he had.

Tamara stared at him, mouth agape, she swallowed, so did he, anticipating her answer, _Did I do it too suddenly_, he thought fearing the worst.

"Yes"

"Yes?"

"Yes ", she repeated, happy tears rolling down her cheeks as she took his head in her arms and kissed him. They stood up as they kissed and took her in his arms, bringing her body closer to his. Their moment of pure joy was interrupted by sudden stop of music.

"Shit", Dusan said as he saw Serbian coat of arms that replaced a music spot that played until now, instead of music there was an almost mechanical voice that would repeat the same message over and over again.

"All military personnel and reservists are to report to the closest military base in twelve hour period."

_Who are we at war now?_ Dusan screamed inside himself. He knew that there would be a war in his lifetime, he lived on Balkans after all.

_Couldn't they wait a couple of days at least?_

He took the remote and changed the channel to the national television, knowing that there would be given some information of what was going on.

"… the ships were spotted this morning by an Japanese observatory around the Moon at 08:30 and are progressing towards Earth. Leaders of US, Russia, China, France, UK, India and Germany have already gathered and are discussing the course the humanity as a whole should take. Any attempts to contact the ships have failed. This is a footage taken from the Interactional Space Station." With that the image of the news woman was replaced by a video of black ships of various shapes and sizes, there were thousands of them, tens of thousands, and every one of them looked more menacingly then the previous.

He looked towards Tamara, she had her hands over her mouth, eyes stunned in shock, a new golden ring around her finger.

_This is a joke, right?_

Phone rang and he picked it up.

"Lieutenant Jovanovic?"

_No way, no way, this is impossible._

"…Yes?"

"You are to report to the HQ immediately."

* * *

"This is the situation", captain Stefanovic said as he unfolded a map.

"We are here in Babin Most", he pointed to the location and continued, "most of the rest of the company are here at Priluzje. As for the Enemy we know that they landed south of Pristina, Americans rode out of Bondsteel around six this morning so they have most likely engaged the Enemy by now. But they don't have any heavy hardware so we have to take this bridge at Milosevo, so when tanks arrive they can cross the river. Battalion's main objective is to take Obilic to open the road to Pristina from the west, that way our company is alone in taking the bridge. Our problem is that the villagers have heard gunfire from Milosevo so we can expect resistance, so here is the plan. Jovanovic you will take your and two more squads and swim over the river at Raskovo and then approach Milosevo from the north while I and the rest will engage directly over the bridge so you can strike them from the back. I am understood!"

"Yes sir", they all replied in union and set off to do their tasks.

"Milos, Lazar you and your squads are with me" Dusan told them and proceeded to the edge of the village.

"Listen we have to cross an open field till we reach the river, luckily the wheat is high and still growing so it will provide some cover, stay low and stay sharp. Move out", he told them as they left the safety of the village and started crossing the fields.

It took them twenty minutes of crawling through the dirt to reach the river bank. Strangely they encountered no sentries or patrols on the other side so he ordered them to cross the river. The river was nothing more than a three meters deep channel with a stream that reached to his waist. This wasn't enough to stop a tank but it would slow it down considerably, thus they needed the bridge.

As they entered the village of Raskovo Dusan could hear arguing. Telling his men to remain hidden he reviled himself before a group of elderly people, some holding hunting rifles.

"Don't fire we are coming out", he yelled in Albanian.

Villagers jerked on his voice, and tensed up when they saw him coming out on plain sight.

"What is going on?", he asked them.

One of the men holding the rifles stepped in front of him, his demeanor hostile, "We don't need Serbian children here, go back to your country", he said and spat in Jovanovic's general direction. Dusan barely contained himself as he felt his blood pressure rising, they received the same treatment in Babin Most and lost lots of time defusing the situation, and to return to his country?, if Dusan was asked he was still walking on Serbian soil. As much as he wanted to cut down the old man together with the lot behind him, Jovanovic needed any sort of information they might have, and really didn't need someone pointing a rifle to his back. So he decided to act as diplomatically as possible.

"These Serbian children came here to bleed for you", he spat at them, "so tell me what I need to know."

Dusan motioned for his men to come out, and they did, guns pointed at the villagers. _We could always write this off as collateral_, he mused.

"Calm down solder", came a shaky voice of an old small woman, she was bent over a walking stick. "I will tell you what happened", he nodded signaling her to continue.

"We were arguing if we should let these morons", she gestured to the elderly men with guns, "should go to see what happened in Balshaj (Milosevo in Albanian). An hour ago our younger men went there and didn't return. We heard gun shots, and their wives got worried."

"I see, we will see what happened to them. Thank you."

"See what happened to them? You and I both know they are already dead, what we want is their bodies back."

"I will see to that", Dusan replied, glad that someone had brain in this village.

"On me", he said and Milos and Lazar kneeled together with him as Dusan unfolded the map.

"We now know that hostiles are in Milosevo, so we will use river bank and trees around it as cover till we reach these houses, then we will use them to enter the village unseen. Understood?" They nodded. "Let's go."

"Tango seven report," came Marko's voice over the earplug.

"We are entering the village, in position in five," Dusan replied.

"Report when in position tango seven."

"Will do, tango seven out."

They were quiet as mice as they moved through households, it wasn't rare for them to find bodies that were decapitated or missing one or several limbs, some were so brutalized that all that remained was a bloody paste. Apparently there were no survivors.

Some of his men vomited, but he kept his stomach in check. But this kind of brutality made him think what kind of creatures they are going to face. What do they look like? Do they even have legs or arms? But most of all what kind of technology do they have, and thus what kind of weaponry?

"Siera three clear the building to the left report when clear, Siera five with me", Jovanovic ordered, and they complied despite being young and scared, their teachers assured their obedience during the first year in the academy.

One of Lazar's men opened back door and they rushed in. Dusan made his way to the windows facing the main street, his earplug buzzing with clear signs. As he took a peak of the street he saw it filled with creatures of various shapes and sizes. The smallest were some red gremlin like creatures barely half a meter tall, that gathered around larger versions of themselves, while the largest was a woman, he thought it was a woman, that was almost eight meters tall, had six arms each holding a blade long as he was tall. There were creatures with wings, hoofs, tails, claws and many other over worldly features.

"What the hell is this?", he asked no one in particular. They came to fight an army of technologically advanced aliens, with lasers, flying tanks, mechanized exoskeletons and all the other impossible technological gadgets, but no. What they came upon was an army of sword, axe and claw wielding demons, for the lack of the better word he could only call them demons.

"This is impossible", he told himself feeling stupefied, as he watched, 'a construct' he thought, that was made of rock, that was engulfed in green flames.

"Siera three is in position", Milos's report broke his amazement.

"Stay in position siera three, don't open fire till ordered."

"Charlie seven this is tango seven we are in position."

"Wait for my mark tango seven."

"Siera five I want your bazooka to instantly kill that rock when we get the mark, siera three your machine gunners to aim for big ones, all the rest load your grenade launchers and fire them first in any large groups you see."

Dusan heard a collection of "yes sir" and proceeded to load his own grenade launcher, his hands were shaking, no matter how much he tried to stop them. Again he looked through the window, this time to do a head count and see if he could recognize some leaders. After a quick assessment he counted around two hundred and their leader was clearly a three meters tall vampire?, which was giving orders in some impossible language.

"Charlie seven this is tango seven I have recognized their leader."

"Description."

"A vampire with wings and horns."

"Umm… we see him, wait for my mark tango seven."

"Understood, tango seven out."

They waited for several seconds until vampire's head exploded, followed by the loudest sound he ever heard. _For god's sake did someone fire a canon at him_, he wondered until he remembered that they had a sniper with a 50 caliber gun.

One of the monsters roared like a demon from a nightmare and the army of aliens charged to the small bridge where Marko was waiting for them. As they approached the river, they exposed themselves on a clearing and emptied out the space around the buildings he and his men occupied, Dusan heard one word.

"Mark."

"Go loud!" he almost screamed over the radio.

Simultaneously two bazookas, two machine guns, and twenty six grenade launchers broke the windows and sent their deadly payload, taking out a good chunk of the Enemy. Launching his own grenade Jovanovic began aiming, picking his targets. First to die was a woman with hoofs and wings, her weapon of choice was a whip?, then he took out one of the gremlins, _was it holding fire in its hands?_. That was confirmed when he took out a second one, which managed to fire at his direction. Luckily it went over his head and hit the wall behind him.

"Target the little red gremlins, machineguns concentrate your fire on those that are carrying melee weapons", Jovanovic yelled over the speaker. Result was instantaneous as the Enemy was pushed back and forced to seek cover, something they were painfully bad at as they were dropping them like flies. After several minutes of exchanging fire the street was empty of the demonic aliens.

"Fill the street with smoke, siera three wait for my mark then enter the building on the other side."

Two smoke bombs were thrown in and Dusan ordered the rest to focus their fire on the ones that were engaging Marko's team. If the aliens realized that they were in a crossfire they didn't show it as those with melee weapons still charged like madman, while those that were using magic?, stood in plain sight. By this time the smoke filled the street nicely and was as thick as it could get.

"Grenade launchers", Jovanovic ordered, and heard affirmative as a reply.

"Mark", siera three bolted out of their building and run across the street, while he and the rest sent their grenades across the battlefield sending the Enemy back and making one more hole in their ranks. It wasn't long before siera three cleared the building across the street and started firing upon anything that moved. After several minutes of gunfire it finally began to lessen its intensity and finally stopped.

"Tango seven don't fire we are coming across."

"Roger that Charlie seven", he replied and then ordered, "head count." Finally he could relax, he almost slummed to the floor when adrenaline left his system.

_I am still alive_, he told himself.

"Siera three here, no casualties"

"Siera five here, no casualties although Pjevalica got hit by a fireball in the face, but he will live."

_Fireball? Did they just use a reference from a game or something. It doesn't matter in the end, it's good to have a name for enemy abilities_, Dusan mused as he glanced over his squad, no casualties.

After some time they were joined with Marko and his men, "Any casualties", he asked.

"One severe burn to the face, he won't be able to continue, sir."

"That's good, we have three dead and two incapacitated on my side. I believe that odds are in our favor today, wouldn't you say so Jovanovic?"

"Yes sir", he answered, "but…", he didn't know if he should ask.

His captain caught his uncertainly, "Permission to steak granted."

"Sir… what are we fighting sir?"

Marko half smiled, "didn't you hear, we are under alien invasion."

"But…"

"We are fighting them because they are the Enemy, leave the understanding of what they are to someone else, am I understood solder?"

"Yes sir", Dusan replied.

"Good", captain said when he concentrated on his earpiece.

"Understood", he replied after some time.

"Secure the village, in two hours 3rd armored battalion will be arriving, we are to join them in their push towards Pristina. Get moving men!"

I assume that most of you didn't know how to properly pronounce, some but most luckily all of the names, surnames or town names. And finding how to pronounce these words accurately on internet is a major pain in the ass, and I am lazy to say the least. For that reason I leave it to you how to pronounce them. But I still feel obliged to at least enlighten you how to say the main characters name, so here it is **Du-shan Yo-va-no-vić.** Where **Ć** is read like this **[t͡ɕ]. **I hope that helped.


	3. Chapter 2

"_Please, please I already gave you everything I had, so please leave me alone, I have no-", the woman's plea was silenced as a large man wearing a strange military uniform, it wasn't like his dad used to wear, smashed his pistol over the woman's head, dropping her to the ground._

"_you think we want your money or food, we already took all of that, we want you to leave, gone, can't you get that into your thick skull. You batter do it while we are playing nice."_

"_Wh-where am I to leave, this is my home", woman cried from the floor, but all her efforts were crushed with a boot to the ribs, making her scream out in pain._

"_Stupid whore, do you think we care", man with the gun said, lifting his leg for another blow. _

"_Don't hurt my mother", Dusan screamed with all the might of his childish voice, bolting out of his hiding spot. When his father left he told him that he was the man of the house now, so he had to protect his mother. And he couldn't do that while hiding, he was his father's good little solder after all, so he had to do as he was told._

_His dreams of being a hero were smashed when another man hit him over the face, forcing him to the floor. _

"_NO!", his mother screamed, her scream filled with more pain from the one she let out just seconds ago. _

_Then a boot connected to his stomach, the force behind it lifted him of the ground and smashed him into a far wall._

"_Please, he is just a boy, please have some mercy", his mother pleaded while his attacker grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up. _

_Dusan trashed around, clawed, punched and kicked anything that was within reach. But it was useless, older man's arm was as hard as a rock, while his steel grip was getting stronger every moment, slowly closing his windpipe._

"_I will do anything you want, so please let him go", he heard his mother while his vision was getting blurry, his lungs felt like they were on fire._

"_Let him go", the man with the gun said, and just like that he was able to breathe again, and in free fall. Dusan smashed hard against the floor, but he didn't care about that, ability to breathe was far more important._

_His mother's face came into view. "Sorry", he tried to say but the word came out wrong, he was so sorry for failing at what he was told to do. But his mother simply hushed him, saying that everything was going to be ok._

"_You told us you would do anything, right?"_

_"Yes, we will leave first thing in the morning", his mother replied as she wiped some tears of his face. He didn't realize that he was crying and he could feel a wet metallic taste in his mouth._

"_We aren't interested in that anymore", the man with the gun paused, "I and my men haven't been with a woman for quite some time."_

_His mother's face fell and lost its color, "you can't …"_

"_Refuse and we kill the boy then we rape you. Although I would like to avoid that, as I like my women willing, though they don't need to like it", the man grinned as he said that. His eyes showing that he would enjoy any decision his mother made._

_She was silent for a long time. Finally after what seemed like an eternity she nodded, fresh tears rolling down her face, her whole body was shaking. _

"_Excellent, now where is the bedroom?"_

"_First to the left", his mother replied, "can I talk to him first so he won't give you trouble?"_

"_You have two minutes. Defrim watch over them", he said to the man that had brutally beaten him and left._

"_Listen Dusan, sit here and don't move, if you need anything ask these men first", she gestured to the men that were just entering the room. There were five new guys. His mother continued, "if they refuse don't ask again, ok?" _

_He tried to rebel but she hushed him down, "you are your father's good little solder, but you are also your mom's good little boy, aren't you?" _

_He nodded._

"_That's my boy", she said and kissed him on the forehead. Then she stood up and left after the man with the gun._

_Dusan sat on his spot as he was told. He didn't ask for anything as he didn't trust big scary men around him. After some time he noticed that one of his teeth was loose, he wasn't surprised, he lost his first tooth over a year ago. So he played with it with his tongue, and when it became really loose pulled it out with his fingers. Dusan wasn't terribly concerned about it, teeth always grow back after all._

_His musings were stopped when the sounds came. They were coming from his father's and mother's bedroom. He didn't know what the sounds meant, yet anyway, so he became terribly afraid. After some time the sounds stopped and the man with the gun returned, only to be replaced with another, and the sounds started anew. This continued for a long time, even after he fell asleep._

_When his mother woke him it was already dawn. There was a large bruise over the left side of her face and she was wearing another dress, in her hands his cloths._

"_Wear this."_

"_Mother what is it?"_

"_We are leaving."_

* * *

_Why the fuck am I remembering that now?_ Dusan asked himself as he ducked behind a rock that served as his cover, in that instant he was bombarded with the multitude of fireballs. The stone he was hiding behind was barely sticking twenty centimeters out of the ground, but at the given moment he wouldn't trade it for all the gold in the world.

Looking around he saw his squad in the similar situation he himself was in, they were all pinned down returning fire when they could. Luckily for them the Enemy has given up on sending their melee oriented monstrosities on open ground, sending big targets armed with axes against a well positioned foe was wasteful at best, they cut them down like grass. But in the given situation if they sent them they were fucked, being pinned down like this wouldn't allow them to take them down before they came close. Dusan really didn't want to fight those things in close combat.

It has been two days since they were joined with the armored battalion, strangely the Enemy didn't stage a counter attack to retake Milosevo. They found out why as they made their push towards Pristina, as they had to fight through wave after wave of berserking aliens. And now all that separated them from the city was this small hill, behind it not even two hundred meters laid Pristina.

Dusan rolled out of his cover just enough to fire a few shots and then rolled back before enemy retaliation hit him. This has been repeating for several minutes now, demons, no one called them demons out loud, yet, but they all somehow knew that what they were facing were demons, held the high ground, while they were taking cover behind anything they could.

_Why the hell did it have to be detracked_, he cursed as he watched five engineers trying to put a tank's track back together. Luckily for them the tank driver used its other track to turn around, thus shielding them from harm. It turned out that the canons that the Enemy had were unable to pierce M-84's composite armor, but were adequate enough to detrack it.

Marko was adamant in having both tanks operational when they made a final push to take the hill. And after all the death these machines have seeded among the Enemy Dusan had to agree.

_Come on, hurry up_, Jovanovic though as he rolled out and fired upon the enemy lines again. It didn't matter if he didn't hit anything, as long as the monsters had to take cover and thus slowing their barrage upon them Dusan was satisfied.

Again he was bombarded by fireballs and all kinds of different energy attacks making him wonder how did his rock survive until now. Taking a quick rest before he started shooting again Dusan looked westward towards burning town of Obilic. Rest of their battalion wasn't able to take the town, part of the reason that they weren't attacked at Milosevo is that the Enemy sent its solders there to stop a much larger threat, and they took heavy losses, just over a hundred men. Because of that high command decided to carpet bomb the town with artillery and air force.

"If you can't control it, destroy it", Dusan silently told the ages old logic that was implemented since the dawn of war.

His musing was interrupted by a painful scream. Turning his head towards the tank he saw one of the engineers engulfed in green flames. He trashed around trying to extinguish them, but it was useless. No one tried to help him ether as he was in the open, too far from any shelter, while his fellow engineers simply divided his share of work among themselves. Then Marko jumped out of his cover and fired, ending the man's misery.

"How long will it take", came Marko's voice over his earpiece.

"We are almost done", replied one of the engineers.

It was in this moment that Dusan decided to fire upon the enemy once more. He rolled on his stomach, took aim, and was greeted with a horrifying sight. Among the alien lines were huge two and three meters tall monsters, each holding an axe or a sword, they had wings.

_Please don't_, the demons lifted their wings and brought them down, taking off into the air.

"Heads up!", he screamed over the radio.

"Protect the engineers", Marko roared.

"On me squad", Jovanovic ordered as he jumped out of his cover and took off towards the detracked tank. He was glad to see his squad follow. There were eight meters to the safety the tank provided. Six meters. Five meters. Just as he was about to take the last few meters one of the aliens landed before him, back turned.

Dusan had barely time to lift his rifle and fire into its back before momentum took him and crashed him into the monster, taking them both down. As he tried to lift himself up he was stopped by the sight of one of the red skinned monstrosities standing above him.

Dusan was frozen as he watched it raise its axe, ready to cut him in half. Everything was moving slowly, the demon's face showed a terrible glee as it was about to end him, eyes radiated pure madness and chaos. Just as he was apologizing to Tamara for failing on his promise of returning, one of his squad mates rammed himself into the monster, and finishing it with a knife through the face.

Jovanovic stood up, empowered by the adrenaline, grabbed his rescuer by the collar of his vest and dragged him behind the tank. Looking at who he was he recognized Dejan, youngest in entire company, he turned nineteen this year.

_Bless you kid_, but he didn't have time to voice it out, as they were quickly being surrounded by the Enemy soldiers. Demons rushed them, but they weren't close enough so were gunned down. When the last one fell, Dusan ordered his men to give supportive fire to any group of soldiers who still battled the aliens.

He did a quick head count. Four engineers, they didn't even lift their heads to look what was going on around them, and nine riflemen. Nine? There should be ten. He looked through their faces. Nenad.

"Where is Nenad?" Jovanovic asked, not caring who answered. They looked among themselves, and grim realization hit them, one of their friends was missing. He looked around, but to no avail. When he spotted him Dusan felt his gut twist. Nenad laid in the grass, his arm extended towards them as if asking for help, but his eyes were dead, a sword impaled him through the chest.

He was his charge, it was Dusan's job as his commanding officer to do everything he could so his men could return home. And he failed. No, he killed him with his orders. Nenad was the first man under his command that he lost.

_But someone had to protect the engineers_, more logical side of his psyche told him, _if they died there would be no one else to repair the tank and a lot more people would die_.

_But he died because I ordered him to leave his cover._

_One life or a hundred, which is heavier?_, he asked himself.

_A good commander helps his men survive the battlefield, but for those that didn't he must make sure that their sacrifices were not in vain,_ he remembered one of his father's lessons.

_Father always knew what to do_, Jovanovic thought as he calmed down his emotions.

"We are done", said one of the engineers braking his musings.

"Airstrike in two minutes, get ready to charge them", captain Marko ordered over the radio and the collection of yes sir replied, Dusan giving his own as well.

Firing on the Enemy line was easy from behind the tank. Enemy canons could only scratch their paint and even they fell silent, courtesy of the tank's massive 125 mm guns, every time they fired a new hole among the Enemy was made.

"Incoming", Marko called out and soon the roar of jet engines was heard. Two G-4 air to ground aircraft were seen as they approached from the left. As they reached the Enemy lines they started unleashing their deadly payloads in the form of missals, bombs and guns. Their deafening shrieks were music to his ears as they destroyed everything on the alien line, from far left to far right.

"Go, go, go", captain shouted over the radio and they all charged just as the tank started moving, taking cover behind it.

They reached hill's top quite easily and anything that wasn't dead was soon dealt with, before them laid Pristina and the ship that brought these monstrosities. It was a massive, half a kilometer long, ship that defied gravity as it floated above the city, it had long blade like contractions all over it, for what purpose Dusan couldn't tell. There was only one and Jovanovic had to wonder how did they place all their soldiers inside it, his platoon alone has killed hundreds of the monsters to get here. By now the Enemy must have suffered thousands if not tens of thousands of casualties.

_Where did they all came from_, he asked himself.

In that moment a Mig flew over their heads, going full speed towards the Enemy ship. He released three missals but they stroke some kind of energy shield, leaving the ship unharmed. It didn't return fire as it focused its guns to the south, shooting massive green balls of fire to the ground. It was there that the Americans were trying to make a push through the Enemy lines.

Recalling the situation they encountered in Milosevo and other villages, Dusan thought that the Enemy would have razed the city by now. The monsters had no mercy, they killed everything man, woman and children, hell they even killed farm animals and burned down crops. But it seems he was wrong, sure there was a lot of smoke and more than one building were destroyed but that was only to the south where Americans tried to enter the city from Orlovic. Houses in front of them were pretty much intact, although there were hastily made barricades and aliens roaming around.

"Wait for the artillery strike and then we will make our push", captain Marko said over the radio.

He told his men to lay low and they waited. Not even a minute passed when first shells hit, sending massive shockwaves that he felt even two hundred meters away. The barrage lasted for about a minute.

Just as the last grenade exploded, Marko ordered to move into the city. Dusan was with his squad jogging behind the tank, taking it as cover although there was almost no need. The artillery has completely annihilated first few rows of houses, but the Enemy remained, at least what was left of them. Dusan and the rest of the company simply overrun their positions to enter Pristina.

* * *

Dusan slammed his back at a car, breathing heavily. Five days passed since they managed to enter Pristina. The progress was slow, on the open fields they had the advantage, Enemy's abilities had a short range, allowing them to shoot them down from afar without the fear of retaliation, not to mention precise artillery and air strikes.

But in the urban environment those advantages were gone, they could still pour a lot more fire down upon enemy positions, but there was a lot of cover for the Enemy to use, allowing their bigger and melee oriented troops to get closer.

"Shit!", he uttered as he turned around, firing couple of shots and taking one of the whores down.

It was funny how fast were the solders to give their new enemy names, although they were kind of natural. You couldn't misinterpret them even if you heard them for the first time. Whore being a name given to the winged females that used whips, gremlins were those small red creatures that threw fire everywhere, their small size making them hard targets to take down. Also there were names like vampires, flyers, shivas, and finally rock dudes, or simply rocks. Those usually required bazookas, grenades or something that was at least 50 caliber. Of course there were some creatures that no one thought to name, for now.

He peeked over the car to take a few shots but he quickly took cover as a ball of pure shadow hit its hood. Monsters had them pinned down, again, and it didn't help that they were quickly learning how to use cover. But that didn't matter, just a few more blocks and the Enemy would be pushed out of the city and they will have them on the open again.

"Captain this is Jovanovic we need backup."

"We are stretched thin Dusan, deal with the situation with what you have", Marko answered.

_Terrific_, Jovanovic thought. All he had was his and Lazar's squads, seventeen men in total, Lazar was short two solders. One of the soldiers died when a shiva kicked him like a rag doll, braking all of his bones. Everyone in two squads emptied a full clip to take her down.

They needed better cover and fast. Buildings around them were badly positioned, it wouldn't allow them to unleash their full arsenal on their foes and could be entered only from one side, making ease to defend but also death traps if they got surrounded. Only building that could be used was behind enemy lines.

"Throw some grenades on their positions", he ordered over the radio.

Moments later two grenades hit home and exploded killing or stunning Enemy soldiers. Dusan and his squads took the opportunity, created by demons lack of fire, to shower them with bullets. They moved forward, closing the gap between lines, but took cover when monsters recovered and started releasing their magical attacks. Jovanovic was still trying to cope with that.

He locked his eyes with Lazar's. That building, Dusan gestured him with his hands, Lazar nodded, he understood. As they were preparing themselves for another push they got showered with fireballs from their left.

"Take cover, we are being flanked", he screamed trying to warn them of the new danger. It was too late for one of Lazar's men as he burst into flames.

"Jovanovic I have sent you some backup", Marko's voice came over the radio and Dusan was both praising and cursing him for late reinforcements.

"Lazar use those bazookas for god's sake!"

"We have only one shot left", Lazar replied.

"There won't be any of us left to use it if you don't hit those fuckers", he told him angrily, as he fired on gremlins flanking them from one of the buildings. Soon enough a rocket flu into a window, shaking the whole structure and making the Enemy to stop their fire, if only temporally.

"Squad five get into the building behind me, report clear, we will cover you." To hell with them being surrounded, if they didn't leave the street they might as well commit suicide. And reinforcements were coming.

Dusan sent his last grenade into the building, silencing the gremlins for few seconds before they lunched their magic again. He ducked as fireballs hit the car he was hiding behind. But the man beside him wasn't so lucky, it was Dejan. Jovanovic watched in horror as the kid that saved his live just a few days ago burst out in flames, letting out painful screams as he tried to extinguish the fire.

He couldn't do anything to help him, Dejan already rolled out of their hiding spot. Even if he got to him somehow and managed to quench the fire, Dejan would die anyway. So Dusan did the only thing he could, he ended his pain.

"Clear", Lazar said, as he and his squad opened fire on the Enemy.

"Cover us. Get inside squad".

After they have taken their positions by the windows the firefight lasted for several minutes. Dusan wondered if they were standing in the way of the entire demon army as more and more were coming. Flyers, the red skinned winged creatures holding swords, and some kind of demonic dogs tried to storm their building, only to be repealed. They could hold, but they were running short on ammo, Jovanovic himself had only one magazine left to spare.

Out of nowhere a huge explosion made itself known, deafening them all, followed by a bigger one. It shook the whole structure. Looking over the street, Dusan saw as the whole building, which was occupied with little gremlins, caved in on itself. Shifting his gaze down the street he saw a tank and two ten men squads on both its sides.

_Marko sent me a bloody tank_, Jovanovic thought barely suppressing a chuckle, _I am going to kiss him next time a see him_.

"Tango seven, this is zulu-one-seven, where do you need us", tank commander asked. The narrow street was crawling with demons.

"Press the pedal and run them over, stop at thecrossroad, squads follow behind the tank and indentify yourselves."

"Sierra three and Sierra four sir", came a young man's voice.

_That was Milos, and Sofija should be commanding the other squad. Good, I got a machinegun and rifle squad_, Dusan thought as a plan quickly formed in his head.

"Milos place your machineguns in the tall building at the crossroad, Sofija position yourselves inside the opposing building, let's make a kill zone."

Everything worked perfectly, the tank simply run over and its machinegun gunned down most of the monsters and two squads behind it killed anything that escaped its tracks. Dusan and two squads with him rushed out when the tank reached them, joining the fray and pushing back the Enemy.

At the crossroad, they were finally able to get some ammo. They rushed and cleared the buildings they needed. Larar's squad with a fire team from sierra four was positioned in a third building, making a three way kill zone. The tank and his squad were on the street, acting as bait.

Dusan was right when he thought that they were stalling a whole army. Down the street they were facing, about a hundred meters from them, a dozen rocks, two dozens of six armed shivas, and lots of whores, gremlins, and flyers marched. Half a kilometer behind them was the edge of the city.

"Squad wait for them to get closer, Sierra 3, 4, and 5 go loud on my mark. Zulu 17 let them taste some high explosive shells", Jovanovic ordered.

When the tank fired the Enemy forces stopped in their tracks. One of the rocks got hit, the HE shell exploded, taking two more out, their solid bodies now working against the Enemy as the pieces of rock flied everywhere as shrapnel, cutting down a couple of shivas and taking out a dozen more smaller monsters around them.

Eight seconds later the tank fired again, making yet another hole in Enemy ranks. Dusan watched in wonder as the demons got massacred. They were trying to take cover, but shivas were too large to do it, flyers and bitches took to the sky only to be cut down by shrapnel and rocks just stood there taking heavy losses. Jovanovic was failing to contain his smile, the tank fired again, _Damn I love that auto loader._

He wondered if the tank would finish them all, but that was not to be. One of those vampiric creatures was in the back of the Enemy troops, screaming orders at his subordinates. Soon they gathered their wits and charged Dusan's position.

Dusan took aim, taking out enemy commanders was always preferable, and he was only about hundred and fifty meters away. It wasn't an easy shot, but Dusan knew how to shoot, he leveled his sight with the vampire, it was easy to figure out that they were always in charge so he always ordered his men to take them out, the rest of the Enemy army would fall into disarray, leaderless. He squeezed the trigger, sending three bullets on their way. They hit the vampire and he fell over.

And just like that the rest of the army charged into his trap like brainless berserkers. He ordered his squad to enter the building, leaving the tank to fend off for itself, not like they could damage it. What reached his trap was barely one third of the Enemy army, and all rocks and shivas were dead, with most of their melee troops. Dusan gave his mark and every man fired, taking out scores of enemies.

It was when they were killing off the last of the monsters that an explosion was heard from above.

Dusan looked up. The Enemy spaceship was hit, its side was smocking. The ship was above them, slightly to the east, making its way north.

_It seems that they finally realized that the real attack was coming from the north not south_, Dusan thought_. But it's too late, not to mention that someone finally figured out how to bypass those shields._

The left side of the ship was engulfed in explosions, fine lines were left in the sky, left by missals and artillery shells. Then the next wave hit, and the next.

_Got to give it to artillery, those guys don't know how to miss_, he thought as an evil smile found its way to his face. _Not that they could miss a half a kilometer long vessel._

One more wave hit and the vessel started going down, picking speed along the way.

_Oh shit_, was all he was able to think off. The way it was going it would fall not even a kilometer from their position and that thing must have had one serious tonnage.

_Marko and the rest of our unit are there_, were his thoughts when the ship hit the ground. The quake was so large that it rocked even the building he was in. The last he remembers was the ground giving way underneath him.


	4. chapter 3 (Rewriten)

I thank everyone for your reviews.

"_Mom my legs hurt."_

"_I know sweetheart, mine hurt as well," Dusan's mother tried to comfort him, "hold on for just a bit more and then you will be able to rest."_

_They have been walking for days now. Together with a whole column of refuges they were heading north, always north towards central Serbia. Passing through villages was dreadful, houses were abandoned or destroyed, it felt more like a ghost town then a settlement where people used to live._

_Dusan wanted to go home, but that was impossible. All it took his mother to pursue him, that it was a bad idea, was to remind him that those men lived there now. It paralyzed him with fear whenever he remembered their sadistic laughter, especially the man with the gun and his friend that kicked him. He still had a massive bruise over his chest._

_He tried to tell his mother that they should go back to take their home back from those men. No matter how much he was afraid of them, it was still his duty to do so. His father always told him that it was solder's duty to protect the people, to keep them safe and to make sure that they could continue their lives unhindered. To do so they needed their houses, and that is why they should go back to their home and chase the bad men away. _

_That is what Dusan told his mother, explaining that he should go back, after all he was his father's good little solder and like all the good solders he should do his duty. All his mother did was give him a sad smile, telling him that he should leave that to the real solders, like his father. That assured him that they would be returning home very soon, his father was the strongest man alive, he even had his own airplane, he would chase the bad people away._

_Dusan knew he was a child, but he wasn't small anymore, he was nine. He heard when grownups talked around the campfires, what he heard wasn't to his liking. The bad men had some really strong friends, Americans one of the grownups called them. Why they came to help the bad people eluded him, all he knew was that they wanted something, what that was he had no idea. But what really shocked him was that his father and his solder friends were losing because of these Americans. _

_Solders weren't around anymore. Up until two days ago they followed the column to protect them from the bad people, solders called them Albanian terrorists, and that really confused him. How could the Albanians be the bad people, Dusan had friend that were Albanians, sure they fought sometimes but they always made up. Terrorist was a word he didn't fully understand but it more or less meant bad people. So Albanian terrorists were bad people that were Albanians, which meant that not all Albanians were bad, meaning that he could continue to play with his friends when he returned home. That train of thought made him smile._

_On the other hand all of the Americans were bad. He was really angry at them. How could they came and help those that were doing the bad things. What's more the solders had to leave because of them, he heard grownups speak about them bombing refugee columns because Americans thought they were all solders because some of the real solders were there just to protect them. Yes Dusan was really angry at the Americans._

"_Let's take a short rest!" Shouted one of the men in the front, braking Dusan's line of thought._

_The column of men, women and children dispersed looking to find a place to sit and relax their tired muscles. Dusan found himself a stump to sit on, his mother set on the grass besides him. She pulled out a piece of bread and a half full bottle of water, giving him both. _

_He was happily munching on the piece of bread when he noticed his mother not eating, she only sat beside him a sad smile plastered on her face._

"_Mom why aren't you eating?"_

"_I am not hungry."_

"_Ok," he said as he finished the last piece of bread, "can I have more?"_

_Her smile disappeared, "Sorry, you will have to be patient till next time we stop."_

"_But I am hungry!" He pleaded, last time they ate was yesterday and all they had was the tasteless bread and water._

"_I am sorry Dusan, but…" Her reply was interrupted by the sound of continues shots._

"_It's the UCK, RUN!" One of the men shouted as he lifted his hunting rifle and fired into the forest, only to be shot down, leaving only a small reddish cloud where he stood._

_Dusan was yanked from his stump as his mother pulled him with all her might, running into the forest on the other side of the road._

"_RUN, DUSAN, RUN," his mother shouted as she pulled him. He took a last glance behind him only to see people being cut down like grass, on the other side of the road men emerged from the forest, pointing their guns at anything that moved, be it men, women or children. The sight only gave fuel to his legs and soon after he was pulling his mother._

_They ran for a long time before she told him to stop so they could catch their breath. Dusan was taking large gulps of air, his muscles and lungs were burning, not being able to stand he simply collapsed into the dirt. _

_It was about ten minutes later when his mother stood up, "Come Dusan we have to move," she whispered. He tried to protest, but before he even made a sound another sound was heard, a single gunshot. _

_His mother jerked, he watched as she gave a look of surprise, before her hard eyes that shined with grim determination lose their light. Her knees buckled beneath her. Everything moved slowly, so agonizingly slowly. She fell on her knees. Then her face fell into the hard forest dirt, revealing a hole in the back of her head._

"_Mom," Dusan tried to say, did he say it, he didn't know, his voice was so low that he didn't hear himself say it._

"_Mom." He shook her as hard as he could, but she didn't move._

"_Mom."_

"_Mom." _

_He repeated the same word over and over again hoping that she would respond. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he pushed the body that was his mother's._

"_Why the fuck did you kill her, we could have had some fun with her."_

"_What? All I did was give her one more hole. She is still warm."_

"_Mehmed you are one sick bastard, you know that don't you," was a third voice, sounding amused._

"_Don't talk as you didn't do it before, Rashid," replied the second man whole the third only shrugged with his shoulders._

_Dusan could only watch as three men stood above him. He couldn't move, his body simply shut down from sheer amount of fear. _

"_What do we do with the kid?" The first man asked as if he only now saw Dusan's form beside his mother's body._

"_Kill him... No, wait. Let him watch, then we can take him with us," was Mehmed's suggestion._

"_Killing him would be mercy compared to what you said," said the first man as he pointed his gun to Dusan's head, "I have no idea why I stick around you psychopaths."_

_All Dusan could do was stare down the barrel waiting for the inevitable. He closed his eyes. _

_A shot was heard. Dusan didn't grasp what death truly meant, but he certainly didn't expect a warm liquid to fall on his face. He opened his eyes only to see the first man fall. More shots came and the other two men fell._

_Dusan was mesmerized. Just seconds ago he was about to die and now, now he looked at his mother's killers dying. The sight alone gave him a feeling of satisfaction. They deserved to die and killing them was justice._

_Solders passed by, pointing their guns at the direction he and his mother run from. One of them stopped in front of him._

"_Came with me kid."_

* * *

First thing to welcome Dusan as he woke up was darkness, complete and utter darkness. It was so dark that he had to close and open his eyes to make sure that they were indeed open.

He tried to stand up only for his helmet to hit something solid and unmoving. The air was filled with dust and smelled of blood.

_Am I bleeding?_ the very thought terrified him.

_What happened? _The question was answered by a string of memories. Aliens, deployment, days of battle through the city, alien ship falling and finally the ground underneath him braking.

Jovanovic started to hyperventilate as the grim realization hit him. He moved him hands and feet in all directions, there was debris everywhere. But that wasn't the problem, the problem were cold, solid and unmovable walls that surrounded him like a sarcophaguses. Dusan was buried alive.

_Calm down, there is still a chance, you are still alive._ He tried to reassure himself, but to no avail. His breathing quickened, his heart pounded so hard that he heard it in his ears and his limbs didn't listen to him as they franticly searched for a way out, only to find none. More he tried to stop his erratic movement the more his body slipped out of his control.

What brought him out of the never ending cycle was a series of coughs, which forced him to roll to his side, only for his shoulder to hit the ceiling. There wasn't space even for that.

When his coughing finally subdued Dusan was able to calm himself down.

_I have to analyze the situation first. Have to see if I have any injuries. _With that thought he first tasted what he coughed up, finding satisfaction that there was no blood in it. Jovanovic tried to feel his pulse on his neck, but there was no space to maneuver his arm around, so he felt it on his other arm. The pulse was strong and fast, his heart was still beating loudly, and wasn't erratic or weakening. So he wasn't bleeding, profoundly at least, he could still have some minor cuts.

_So it's someone else's blood. _He told himself as he tried to remember who was in the room with him when it hit. Dusan chased those thoughts away, he had more concerning matters to attend to.

He was hurt, there was no question about it. He felt as he was a rag doll that was thrown into a washing machine, which was set on maximum. That was most likely an understatement compared to what he went through. Although there was no trace of that piercing pain the broken bones brought, he was really glad for that.

He also noticed that his mouth was dry, his tongue felt like sandpaper.

_Now the surroundings._

With his right hand he felt a smooth surface, there were some holes here and there but otherwise it was smooth. Underneath, below his feet and over him was the same, smooth walls encircled him. The left side was a complete other story, it was composed of rough and broken pieces of concrete and bricks. Only place he couldn't feel was over his head. He rose himself on his elbows and pushed his body 'up'.

"Please let there be nothing there, please." He silently prayed to whatever deity would listen. Jovanovic wasn't a religious man, since his parents died he lived with his grandfather and he was a communist to the bone. Still Dusan celebrated during the holidays, although he viewed them more like national celebrations then religious ones. Never the less when asked Dusan would say that he was an orthodox Christian.

But none of that mattered right now, if Satan himself came and offered help Jovanovic would gladly take it. The thoughts of dying under ruble was less then tempting.

After half a meter of crawling on his elbows his hopes were crashed, his helmet hit something.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" He screamed as he pushed with all his might, but the object remained unmoved.

He lowered himself, taking calming breaths to avoid another panic attack.

_Think._ He ordered himself. _You moved. New surroundings. Analyze._

There was more space around him, barely enough to move his arms over his head. There was a big gap to his right, he moved in, finally managing to turn on his stomach. Again he felt around, finding a new passage to move to.

Hours passed as he moved through utter darkness. Left, right, up and down. He had no idea where he was, thoughts of him spinning in circles came and passed more than once. His muscles were sore and he was dehydrated, countless times he stopped to rest, to relax a bit, Dusan welcomed renewed energy that it brought.

He was relentless as he moved through the ruble. No number of dead ends, unmovable objects or corpses was able to deter his spirit. A small map was forming inside his head, there were still passages that he didn't explore, but they were all slowly being conformed as dead ends.

Dusan stopped. Feeling around with his hands.

_Another dead end. And this is the last section._

He reached into his pockets, five small stones is his right one and three in the left. _Five right and three left turns. _Dusan quickly drew a map in his head. _Yea this is the last corridor. There is no way out. _

He relaxed, letting his tired muscles get their much needed rest.

_There must be a way out! There must be a hole that you missed._

_I already checked everywhere. There is no way out. _He replied… to himself.

"Fucking perfect! Now I'm talking to myself."

_Maybe I should sleep a bit and give my brain some rest. _Dusan though, his body and mind, overtired, in complete agreement with him, his eyes closing.

_This feels like giving up. _

_._

_._

_._

'_Why are you giving up?'_

The tired solder shot his eyes open. That wasn't his voice. Whenever he thought about something, the voice in his head was his own, he supposed it was like that for most people. This one sounded… feminine, and strangely soothing.

Jovanovic rose himself as much as the tunnel allowed. His hand picking up the biggest piece of rubble he could find. In past few days he fought all kinds of creatures with plethora of different abilities. And meeting some of them inside this tunnel was a death sentence.

"Who said that!?" He shouted his voice coarse. There was no reply, not even a tiniest of sounds.

Suddenly tiny drops of light appeared in the corner of his eye, it was faint and weak, it reminded him of the light that appears when he rubbed his eyes. As he turned his head, it disappeared.

'_This way.' _The voice said, it was calming and definitely feminine, and Dusan definitely didn't 'hear' it.

The soldier prepared himself for a fight in close quarters. He wasn't going to trust a being that could speak directly into his mind, no matter how reassuring its voice sounded.

'_Hurry.'_ It said, the light appearing and fading a bit further. This time the voice was vaguely familiar to him.

'_Do you really want to break your promise?' _Dusan's thoughts immediately settled on Tamara, and against his better judgment decided to follow.

* * *

_Light._

Jovanovic had to rub his eyes to confirm that he wasn't hallucinating. It was a silvery light at the end of the narrow tunnel, not the small spots of light that lead him there. He surged forward, his strength returned to him as he moved with renewed vigor.

He almost felt like crying when he finally crawled out. But he kept all of his emotions, that were threatening to explode, in check. As far as he knew this was still a battlefield. Dusan hoped that his side won, but who could know. He was probably trapped underneath the ruble for days, anything could have happened.

Dusan checked around himself. He was in a room, on a first floor, how he ended up above ground he had no idea, but accepted it never the less. It was night time and moonlight was entering through a huge gap created by a missing wall.

Outside he saw a broken city. Buildings destroyed and tilted illuminated by moonlight. In the distance he could see the outlines of the downed alien vessel. Barely hearable gunshots coming from her direction, sides of building illuminated from time to time, _Alien abilities no doubt, _Dusan thought.

Checking his gear he found out that it was either broken or missing, all that was left was his combat knife. He returned it to its sheath and opened the door that separated him from the rest of the building.

He stopped in his tracks. The room he just entered unlike the one he just left, half of which was missing, was more or less whole. It was tilted, not much just enough to notice, walls were cracked, furniture was damaged and overturned. Parts of the ceiling were on the floor, creating holes through which moonlight sipped in and illuminated the room. In the middle of the room was an armchair, only piece of furniture that wasn't on its side, in it was one of Them.

He made a short eye contact with it and felt a strange pull towards the creature.

_She is beautiful. _The creature that sat in front of him was beautiful. She was a perfect woman, her voluptuous figure radiating lust. There was not a speck of imperfection on her body, from the tips of her toes to the ends of her wings.

_Must be uncomfortable sitting in a chair when you have wings._

_Why can't all women have wings?_

_What the fuck are you thinking?_ Dusan scolded himself, surprised by his own thoughts. A headache was slowly gaining in strength.

Jovanovic looked at her again. She was eating? Suppressing his surprise that an alien was eating food from a fridge lying beneath her feet, Dusan observed her.

Whatever food she took from the cooling device she mashed it into an unrecognizable mass. Her hand was mere centimeters from her face, her tongue protruded out of her mouth in the attempt to catch as much food as possible. The scene reminded him of an old movie about Romans where Barbarians were portrayed to eat like animals. But she still managed to look mesmerizing, what's more her demeanor was sexually exciting him.

It was the first time that he didn't see one of her kind through the gun sight and already the thoughts of her presenting a danger were disappearing.

The barely clothed woman's facial expression was locked at a mild surprise as she watched him. Their eyes locked again and Dusan felt that pull again, this time much stranger. She smirked, sending an electric wave through his spine.

_I should have knocked._ Dusan felt embarrassed, more so then when he interrupted his roommate and his girl in the middle of sex. He apologized, it didn't matter that she most likely didn't understand him. He shouldn't have walked in just like that. Jovanovic felt compelled to close the door and return to the half destroyed room, and find another route down. He was either going to jump down or back into the tunnels, he really didn't want to go under the ruble again.

She stood up, breaking his chain of thoughts, and extended her arm towards him.

_She is inviting me in? She doesn't mind?_ Dusan stepped inside and closed the door.

She smiled and he returned it, stepping towards her.

The woman in front of him freed her whip and cracked it through the air.

_My god she is going to whip me. What a joy._

_What in the hell is happening? _He tried to stop himself, but his body was refusing his commands. He wanted to hug her, kiss her, to strip her of her cloths and fuck her like a beast.

_Will she accept me?_ Any doubts he had were broken by her small smile. Yes she would accept him, and he would do anything she asks of him. He stopped just centimeters from her.

She locked her purple blazing eyes with his, her smile filled with mischief. She reminded him of HER.

_She is not HER!_ He screamed inside his head, momentarily stopping his hands from embracing the woman before him.

_SHE no longer matters._ His hand moved again.

_SHE does matter, SHE is, She is… I,I… I can't remember her name._ He was petrified, his gut twisted in this new realization. His hand moved, but instead of hugging the demon he embraced his head, it felt like it would explode from pain.

Dusan took a step back and looked at his torturer. She was surprised but amused.

_What is HER name?_ He tried to remember her looks, but failed even there. She was important, he didn't know why, but she was. The more he tried to remember the more his head hurt.

_HER name? _Jovanovic fell on one knee, hugging his head.

_T, it begins with T._ He remembered brown.

_HER hear was light brown. But what was her name. T-T-T-TA-TA. _He felt fingers on his chin. The demonic woman before him gently guided his gaze to meet her own. She spoke something in her own language.

_God she is beautiful._ Dusan felt exposed, defiled.

"No!" He pushed her hand away, braking eye contact.

_Why did I push her away?_

_Something is wrong._

_Will it be ok if I remember HER name? It will, it must. God my head is going to explode. _The demon grabbed his head and forced him to look into her eyes. He was panting heavily. Using all the strength he could muster Dusan broke her hold on him, putting some distance between them.

He was on all fours when he noticed it. Hanging on silver chain together with his dog tags was a golden ring. Instantly a flood of memories assaulted him. But he didn't resist, it felt right.

_When did it fall out?_ He wondered as he put the ring back under the safety of his vest, but glad that it did. He remembered now, not just Tamara's name but everything. He felt the woman that manipulated his mind walk around him.

_How DARE she?_ Sensing his change of demeanor the demonic woman jumped back, putting some distance between them before he managed to lash out.

_HOW DARE SHE?_ Jovanovic stood up, feeling murderous rage build up inside him. His fatigue and pain forgotten as adrenalin surged through his bloodstream. He was going to kill it, as brutally as he could.

Dusan clenched his fists and grinded his teeth as he watched her circle around him like a predator would its prey.

_Prey? Me?_ He chuckled, watching her every move, waiting for her to make a mistake. She bewitched him and now she was going to pay.

He was ready to charge, but the thoughts of the voice from the tunnels stopped him.

"Are you the one that lead me here?" He didn't expect the answer, but asked none the less, he had to know.

"Yes." She replied. _No it, that's an it._ The fact that the monster in front of him rreplied in a human language, much less his native tongue, didn't surprise him much. Jovanovic was far more interested in the look of mild surprise that appeared on its face before replying.

"You lie."

The demon hissed and raised its whip bearing arm. Jerking it down she sent the torture device straight at his head. Putting his arm he shielded his face from harm as the whip wrapped around his forearm.

Grabbing the whip with both of his hands Jovanovic pulled, forcing her to lose her step and stumble forward only to regain her balance by spreading her wings. Seeing her slightly unbalanced Dusan charged forward.

Dusan wasn't a tall man, being barely over hundred and eighty centimeters tall, but he was well built, having almost ninety kilos, adding the heavy gear he still had on himself he weighted easily over a hundred. So when he rammed her against a wall it felt like being hit by a train.

He felt satisfaction fill him as her ribcage collapse under his rage empowered charge. The demon let out a painful scream, but he wasn't done yet. He pulled back his head only to slam his helmet in her face. An audible crack was heard as her bones broke, Dusan pulled back and this time slammed his fist into her head, he hit her again, and again, and again.

When he was done, Jovanovic inspected his handiwork. Her nose was flattened, cheek bones broken and deformed, left eye burst sometime under his assault and was leaking some bloodied liquid. She also didn't posses most of her teeth, but she was still breathing.

He let her go and she fell on the floor, somehow ending in a sitting position as she leaned against the wall.

Dusan took a few steps back and turned around, only to change his mind and turn back. He lifted his boot planning to slam it against her head. He stopped himself, lowered his leg and letting his rage cool down, his more rational side overcoming it.

_She could be useful. _By the fourth day the whole army had orders to capture one of the creatures alive, they failed, bloody things either didn't know how to surrender or were too crazy to do it. But here Dusan had an unconscious alien that understood and/or spoke Serbian, possibly other languages as well.

He unwrapped the whip from his forehand and tied it around its ankles, a part of it going around the neck, so it would choke itself if it tried to free itself.

"There, done." Jovanovic said into the air when he finished. He walked back and fell into the armchair that was occupied by the demon only a few minutes earlier.

"Finally some time to eat something."

Grabbing the bowl that was used by the demon, he inspected what was inside. The mass was a mixture of raw meat and some vegetables. Deciding that having diarrhea later was a bad idea Dusan threw the bowl over his head. Looking into the fridge besides him, he found a nice sausage. Dusan was more than happy when he felt its taste in his mouth.

"Shit." He uttered as the adrenaline left his system and fatigue and pain return tenfold. His vision quickly blurred. He was waging a battle to stay conscious but was losing quickly.

Just before he fell into unconsciousness he saw a beautiful woman, her form glowing slightly.

_You did well, my good little solder. _Her voice was kind and motherly.

Last he heard was a door burst open and hurried footsteps enter the room.


	5. Chapter 4 (2nd part of the old ch 3)

You haven't seen true horrors of war until you have visited a field hospital.

This fact was true for Dusan as well as he slowly woke up. His head hurt like hell and he was seriously dehydrated. The air was filled with moans and curses.

"Shit. What the hell did those bastards do to you, shit on your wounds?" Someone shouted over the noise.

"We will have to amputate his leg."

"Don't. Please don't, for the love of god, doctor, please there must be another way." Replied another voice, clearly not pleased with the idea of losing a limb.

"Put him to sleep and send him to Ivan."

"Yes doctor." Replied a third voice and soon the protests of soon to be cripple were silenced.

Dusan sat on the side of his bed and found himself surrounded by dozens of similar beds filled with men women alike. All with different degree of injury. Heads, arms, legs and torsos covered in bloody bandages, quite a few were missing limbs, sometimes more than one. Some slept, some cried, while other cursed everything around them, a few simply stared into nothing.

Shifting his gaze to the room around him, Jovanovic noticed that he was in some airport's waiting hall. Through a widow wall he saw an olive green tent, behind it transport aircraft were parked their cargo holds being emptied.

"You are Lieutenant Dusan Jovanovic, 31st infantry?" Dusan looked up to his left finding a short woman staring at him, a bloodied white coat over her military uniform indicating that she was a doctor.

"Yes ma'am."

She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder into the general direction of the window. "Your colonel is expecting you in his tent." She paused as she gave him a good look, from her pocket she took two blue pills and put them in his hand. "Swallow these, it will make you feel better. And you should drink lots of water."

"Ma'am yes ma'am." Jovanovic replied. Standing up he felt his legs buckle underneath him. Dusan steeled himself so he wouldn't fall and for the first time looked at himself for any injuries. He was also half naked, his uniform on a chair beside his bed.

"We only found minor cuts and bruises, nothing major." Said the doctor behind him, as he dressed himself. "You have been out for three days so drink some water, it's over there," she pointed to a box with bottles in a corner, "now get out I have more pressing things to attend to."

"Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am." Dusan said and walked out of the waiting hall, but not before he took a bottle of water and swallowed his two pills.

As he exited the building, Jovanovic was hit by a wall of heat and blinding sunlight. Trying not to stumble from momentary blindness, Dusan raised his hand to shield his eyes.

Soldiers moved around, carrying equipment and wounded alike, quite a few were covered with white sheets. The tent he saw earlier proved to be a part of the field hospital, and not a command center he hopped it to be.

He started walking towards a group of relaxing men, hopping to get some directions. As he approached Dusan noticed that the group was oddly quiet, solders whispering among themselves. Among them he spotted a familiar face, _Nina, _he remembered, one of the few girls from his company.

He turned towards her, glad that there was someone familiar. Apparently she saw him as well, she stood up and saluted.

"Lieutenant, sir."

"Relax." Jovanovic replied. When she loosened up a little he continued. "What's going on?"

"News on the radio are about to start."

"News?" New happening always found their way to him and his squad, it was almost always what command wanted you to hear but even then they weren't so great.

"Yea, one of the engineers from 32nd found and repaired an old radio that works on low frequencies, so sometimes we are able to hear some news from a bit farther away."

"I see." Dusan replied. "So were there any good news lately?" He asked not hopping for much.

"There is actually. Yesterday British navy was able to push back an Enemy fleet that tried to cross La Manche."

He was surprised. _ Someone is actually doing well in this war. _

"Those are really good news." Jovanovic felt good as he said that. "Anyway, why are you alone. Where is the rest of the company?"

"Dead sir."

"What?" He half-shouted. His happy mood replaced by a dreadful one.

"Dead sir, I and now you are the only survivors." She said, fear in her eyes.

_Shit._

"Everybody?" She nodded. "Fuck." He pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't believe what he just heard. "Fuck." He glanced at her seeing that she was again in full attention.

_A hundred kids, all dead._ "What happened?" Dusan asked. "After the ship fell." He hastily added.

"I don't know much sir, all I know is that when the enemy vessel was shot down, it fell down among our lines." Her voice was robotic, like she was giving a report about something minor. _She probably doesn't want to show any weakness. _Dusan thought as he listened. "I was knocked out by the blast. I was woken up by a squad of Americans. It was chaos sir, no one knew where was the front line. Pockets of Enemy and our soldiers were scattered throughout the city. It took us almost two full days to rejoin our forces, after that we pushed towards Enemy vessel. Last I heard battles are still waged around it."

"Thanks." The speech sounded practiced to Dusan. "Do you know where is the command tent?"

"You should go through the terminal sir, it's on the other side of the airport, it's the only tent there." Jovanovic nodded, dismissing her, she saluted and relaxed only after he left.

When Dusan entered the tent, he was greeted by two American soldiers in full gear. He paused for a second, surprised, looking behind them he saw about a dozen Serbian officers sat and relayed orders over radios. What really surprised him was the amount of noise coming from behind the curtain on the other side of the tent.

Whatever the person was screaming about was lost to him. The words were deformed into barely understandable English as the person pronounced them in complete rage. Words like cowardice and treason were used extensively. After a good ten minutes the shouting, by what Dusan figured was an American commander, stopped.

"I understand your anger, I truly do general, but you must understand that circumstances of the battle have changed when that ship fell six days ago. There was nothing we could do about it." Said a calm, but in heavily accented English, voice that Jovanovic recognized as colonel Petrovic's. He also noted that six days passed since he was last awake, realizing that he spent almost three days under the ruble.

"I lost three thousand men!"

"I can only thank you for your noble sacrifice for our common cause."

"Fuck you!" shouted the general, storming out, he gestured for his soldiers to follow him and together they left the tent.

Taking that as his cue Dusan entered.

"Sir, lieutenant Dusan Jovanovic, reporting for duty sir."

Colonel was a giant of a man, even while sitting it could be easily seen that he was over two meters tall. His hand were resting on the table which was covered by a map of whole Balkan region and some neighboring countries, couple of dozen red pins spread over its surface. Petrovic looked him over, his gray eyes locked with Dusan's for a briefest moment before the colonel smiled.

"Glad to see you still alive lieutenant." Jovanovic's commanding officer said after a moment of silence.

"I am glad for that as well sir."

"Good. You likely wonder why are you here." Dusan nodded and colonel stood up. "There are couple of things that I want to discuss with you. But first I need you to answer some questions."

Dusan steeled himself. _I am fucked, Marko is dead so he is going to hang me for losing the company._

"I need to know what happened to you when the ship fell." It was no question but a command. _Shit._

Dusan told him, everything, almost everything. He told him how he woke up under the ruble, how he searched and found his way out, carefully leaving out his hallucinations, he himself wasn't sure if he hallucinated or not. He also left out the detail that the demon almost bewitched him. He finished with its capture and him passing out.

"I see." Was all colonel said, he paced a bit behind his desk. "Now.." He was interrupted by, "They downed another one!" Cheers soon followed.

"Another one?" Jovanovic asked, momentarily forgetting his position.

Petrovic looked at him, his gaze neutral. "You are aware that aliens landed ten ships south of Novi Sad?" After Dusan nodded he continued. "The army wasn't able to hold them there. Five days ago they pulled back and evacuated as many civilians as they could, after that Russians nuked the city." Colonel glanced at him. "Yes, situation was that bad. Worst of all four of the ships weren't cought in the blast radius. They made their way towards Belgrade, wiped out our air defenses and landed their troops in New Belgrade district. By another one he means a second one was shot down."

Dusan couldn't believe what he just heard, _A whole city lost_, his company's loses seemed insignificant.

"Anyway let's return to the purpose of you being summoned here." Petrovic continued, dismissing his previous monolog like old news, _It is old news,_ Jovanovic had to tell himself, hopping that Tamara found a way to leave the city.

"Did you hear what happened to your company?"

"Yes."

"The situation isn't much better with the rest of the battalion. I will be blunt son, our battalion suffered ninety percent causalities. Out of all the men that are left I was barely able to assemble two companies. You were aware that major Marko was my second in command?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. He recommended you if something like this happened, so congratulation from now on you are a major." Dusan was surprised, again, when he heard he was summoned, Jovanovic was expecting many thing to happen, getting promoted, by two ranks, wasn't one of them.

"Before you start with your new duties there are things you need to know." Petrovic made a short pause. "We will be getting reinforcements soon, so you shouldn't worry about the lack of men. As for the aliens, we managed to wipe out their main force and capture majority of the downed vessel, but they have a great number of troops scattered throughout Kosovo, it seems that some of the debris wasn't so empty." He paused again. "Anyway, the Enemy possesses the ability to create some kind of portals that are used to summon more soldiers. Our main task is to find them, stop them from being constructed, if not, destroy them. Any questions?"

Major thought of replying with no sir but changed his mind. "Sir shouldn't we march north, to relieve Belgrade?"

"No, our orders are to defend and secure Kosovo."

"Albanians and Americans can do that sir."

"Albanians don't have an army and Americans are going home." Petrovic pointed out. "Last I heard US is in deeper shit then we are." He added.

"Ok, maybe not the Americans, but you and I both know that Albanians have enough hidden weapon cashes to arm half of their population." Dusan was angry, he knew that he was overstepping his bounds but he couldn't care less. He remembered the old man in the village, the bloody foul was ready to shoot him. Then it hit him, instantly realizing what was going on.

"I see that you calmed down major." Colonel said, a small smile on his face. "Care to explain why?"

"Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe, when we secure it will be easy to recruit them with enough propaganda."

"And that is why Marko recommended you. Just so you know, what you just said doesn't leave this room." Jovanovic nodded.

"Now go and prepare the men,when the reinforcements arrive we are to start search and destroy missions, dismissed."

"Sir yes sir." Dusan replied and turned to leave only to be stopped by colonel Petrovic.

"Preserve your strength major, the war just started."

* * *

Reviews are always welcome (especially if they are about bad grammar and spelling). So this is where the old chapter three ended, what I am hopping for in its rewrite is a fealing that humanity is fighting a desperate battle, but not an unwinnable one. I hope I got it right this time.


	6. Chapter 5

Sorry for not updating this fic for like seven months. I would like to say that I was busy, and although that is true (partially), I would be lying if I did.

Anyway here it is, a new chapter, rewritten 3rd chapter (that was split into chapter 3 and 4, if you haven't noticed), and slightly rewritten chapters 1 and 2 (nothing serious, grammar and spelling).

Also, from now on I will be replying to all reviews by PM.

She hated this world.

From the moment she saw it to this very second, it produced nothing but headaches for her.

Worst of all was the lack of magic. Malch'rah fought on other low magic worlds many a time, and while the lack of mana in the air weakened and tired her, it was nothing her connection to the Nether couldn't replenish.

Here, it wasn't only the lack of mana, but the Nether felt like a distant star, behind a tick wall. Trying to get to any energies from it felt like banging your head against the said proverbial wall. It's not that she couldn't do it, she could force a connection to the Nether if she wanted to, it's that the energies that she received were insignificant compared to the amount of power she would waste to do it.

The connection to the Twisted Nether was actually so week that when they made their way through the stars instead of normally reentering the reality, like so many times before, they were forced into it. To make things worse, they appeared right in front of the planet's moon. Before the fleet managed to organize itself, a good part of it crashed or crash landed on the satellite's surface.

That proved to be as much as a curse, as it was a blessing.

The portals, meant for bringing in troops from Legion worlds, were useless. They did work, what they lacked was power to fully break into the Nether and connect to their contra parts. And that's where the planet's satellite comes into play.

Portals that were meant to bring in the troops that got stranded on the moon worked. There, the wail between reality and Twisted Nether was weak enough for the portals to break into it and link themselves to the Legion worlds.

It was a two stage system and thus slower than a direct one, but Malch'rah couldn't complain as long as she was getting her reinforcements. And those she needed a lot.

In her fifteen centuries as one of the Legion's commanding lords, Malch'rah never met this kind of resistance. The mortals defended every inch of their land feverishly, their ranged weapons giving them an edge against magic depleted demons and their war machines although not unstoppable, were very close to it.

Only way to push through their ranks was with overwhelming numbers, only for the mortals to retreat when you got them in a striking distance. This agitated some of her more bloodthirsty demons, an agitation that more than often sent most of them into all out rage, a rage that usually ended with them dying in droves, not that they weren't already. If the corrupted eredar warlock didn't know better, she would have guessed that she fought against four other Legion commanders. Her demons were dying that fast.

The warlock sighted, for the first time in centuries.

_And this was supposed to be easy._

"Mistress."

"What?" Malch'rah asked. Turning to see who would dare interrupt her not so pleasant thoughts, eredar came face to face with her second in command, one of the nathrezim.

"One of the prisoners talked, you ordered to inform you if such a thing happened." He replied, not really intimidated by her outburst.

_If there is anything I hate more than this planet it would be this cursed thing._

"Take me to it." She ordered. The Nathrezim obeyed instantly, he turned around and started walking. As they exited a small room that she took as her chambers, her two doomguard bodyguards fell in step behind her.

The warlock let herself be led through richly decorated hallways. Rooms they passed through had hundreds upon hundreds of shelfs all filled with books.

It was purely by chance that she stumbled upon this treasure trove. Malch'rah sent one of her lieutenants to deal with mortal's resistance, what he reported back reveled a biggest library the corrupted eredar saw in her very long life. In less than a day her forces occupied it and she proclaimed it her new headquarters.

And now, almost a month later, Malch'rah walked through its halls disappointed. Her search for magical techniques, ancient artifacts and proof of Titan's meddling was met with nothing. Only mentions of ether was in stories and legends, and that's why the warlock had some hope in this library, mortal's legends usually had more truth in them than most thought they did.

"Anything new on the front?" She asked, not really interested. By now they were walking through library's basement, its decorated walls weren't giving that dungeon feeling the warlock was hoping for, but it had to do. M_aybe I should have this place redecorated. _

"Galwadon and his forces were wiped out not so long ago." Replied the dreadlord.

_So sending him to Chatham finally payed off. _Man'ari thought, truly happy with the outcome. Her pitlord lieutenant was gaining strength rapidly and more than once challenged her orders. But real problems were coming from the support the other lieutenants were giving him. The solution came from her second in command, let the humans deal with him. And thus Galwadon and his army were sent to Chatham, a town where Legion was losing full regiments daily. And now, three days later her lieutenant was dead.

_Now just to find a way to get rid of you as well. _She thought as she looked into nathrezim's back.

"Here we are." Said the dreadlord, opening the door to let her in.

Walking inside Malch'rah was met with a sight of a very satisfied fellow man'ari, _Reth'zaar, _she remembered his name. He was standing across a succubus and a female mortal that were wrestling for supremacy, giggling nonstop.

Seeing her Reth'zaar ordered two women to stop, the succubus complied instantly, but her human partner took some convincing. Its skin was flashed and eyes hazy, sweat covered its naked form and its fluids were dripping down its thighs.

"Is it ready?" She asked the other eredar.

"It will answer all your questions." He confirmed. There were many ways to get the desired information out of mortals, Reth'zaar preferred to do it by using succubi. It was slower, but a method that gave not only desired information, but ready infiltrators and saboteurs as well.

"Where is the main base?" Malch'rah asked, she could feel magic drain from her even while using something easy such as a translation spell.

"Rikers Island." The mortal replied instantly, and that showed to the Eredar that her kin had done his job well. But it made her frown anyway. _Tell me something I don't know. _

From day one the human forces showed great knowledge how to wage war, their only weakness was their obsession to protect and evacuate civilians. A weakness that Malch'rah used to great effect by taking a large part of the great city, mortals responded by blowing up the bridges. An action which led to the current situation, her controlling most of the main two islands and the main land while the human forces had couple of small islands and a number of small outposts throughout the city.

"The main base on this island." She said, a bit impatiently.

"Oh." Realized the mortal woman, its expression made the warlock wonder if it was brain damaged. "That's in the Columbia University." It finally said.

_Where the hell is that? _"Map!" She ordered, the nathrezim moved to comply, unfolding the map and placing it between her and the mortal. "Show me." The woman's finger found its way on the map.

"That's a long way from any human held territory." Stated Reth'zaar beside her, the female man'ari had the same thoughts. She looked at the human, it got the message.

"We used the subway." Malch'rah was surprised, the mortal in front of her used we, not they. _It seems that Reth'zaar didn't complete his job on this one. _She pushed those thoughts aside.

"I thought that the subway was destroyed or flooded by humans once we overrun their defenses." The thrice cursed dreadlord said.

"Some weren't, primary those used for evacuation, some were cleared afterword." The human replied. "Now they connect most of the city parts that we… they control." It corrected itself, after getting a glare from the warlock.

She dismissed the mortal woman, who beamed and hastily moved towards her succubus lover. The corrupted Eredar canceled the translation spell, suddenly she felt dizzy, but she didn't show it, not in front of her subordinates.

_Maybe I should consume something magical. _

"Maybe you should drain life from the mortal, mistress." Said the dreadlord, it sounded like he was continuing her thoughts.

She thought about it for a moment, the human could still be used for something, in the end she decided to do it anyway. Turning around and grabbed the human by its shoulder. Like casting any magic on this world it took some effort to connect its life force to her mana pool, but she managed to do it. She could feel her strength return as the mortal's life force was turned into mana.

All of a sudden the weak but steady flow was stopped and then reversed. Malch'rah panicked, _This shouldn't be happening, _her mana was getting depleted, rapidly. She cut the connection by force and the painful feedback threw her on her knees.

She was ready to stand up and punish the human but was stopped by something sharp and metallic finding its way into her throat. Looking up she saw Reth'zaar who twisted the blade and jerked it out, splattering her blood on the floor. She fell on her side. She tried to heal her wound with her magic but her mana reserves were too small.

Taking one last glance at the nathrezim, man'ari saw him smirking.

_I knew it. I should have killed him. _Those were her last thoughts.

_This was easy. _He thought as he cleaned the blood of his blade. Looking up he saw doomguard bodyguards looking through the door.

"You said they wouldn't be a problem." The man'ari addressed the dreadlord.

"And they won't be." He replied. "Go and find Xerith, kill him." The nathrezim ordered the doomguards, one of them nodded and they left.

"For a moment I thought she wasn't going to do it."

"It's good then that I reminded her of her favorite hobby." They both smirked as they both turned towards the comatose human.

Reth'zaar didn't know why what happened did, but he did learn on the battlefield that when lesser demons and warlocks tried to drain mana or life from their mortal victims they ended up weakened or dead. A fact that he sheared only with his accomplice, the dreadlord was ready to get rid of Malch'rah before she got rid of him.

_She never knew how to hide her bloodlust. _

"My lord." The nathrezim addressed him, the eredar liked how it sounded. "We should dispose of witnesses." Without even looking Reth'zaar released a powerful incinerate spell on the two lovers, just before the spell hit them the succubus tried to protect her mortal lover but to no avail, the spell quickly ate through both of them.

He frowned as he looked at the burned corpses. It was common knowledge that when the demons died their bodies disintegrated into nothing, and their spirits went to the Nether, where they waited to be summoned or if they had enough power recreate their bodies themselves. Sometimes truly powerful demons like nathrezim and pitlords would possess a mortal's body. But here their bodies staid and their spirits straggled to enter the Nether, most of them getting destroyed in the process. It was a mystery he had to solve.

"How many lieutenants will I have to kill?" The new lord commander of the one of the Legion's armies asked his second in command.

"Not many, most will support you, others will follow the majority or flee to other commanders, few will outright disobey you." Dreadlord answered and man'ari nodded in return.

"Good, now let me see the book." He ordered. The nathrezim didn't even blink from suddenly being ordered around.

The book was surprisingly new and like all the books in the library had equally cut pages its text was evenly written on both sides, no ink spots that dirtied the pages. He had to respect the precision and dedication these mortals put into writing their book. Turning a few pages he found what he was looking for.

The paintings like the book were well made and nicely showed what they were meant to. Reth'zaar had seen many runes, titans have visited many worlds and left their runes on all of them, and this one was no different. Titan runes changed a bit from world to world, thus forcing them to decipher them every time, here they differed a bit more but he could already recognize few, like the rune for power and blood, those two were always the same.

"Artifacts in these paintings are located on this Europe continent, yes?" The eredar asked.

"Yes, northern Europe."

"Last time I checked Legion has no presence there."

"That is correct."

"Ts. It seems that we will need couple other lords to help us conquer and secure the region." Reth'zaar tough out loud. "Do you have any suggestions? Hopefully someone who isn't overly loyal to the Seeker." He turned to the dreadlord.

"A few. But my lord we can't leave, not so soon at least." When eredar raised his eyebrow nathezim continued. "Malch'rah had orders to take and hold the city, you as her successor are expected to do the same. Although you could leave someone in your stead, but if he or she failed you would suffer the consequences. Also there is a possibility that he or she would take the city and the army for themselves."

_So there was that as well._

"So taking over the army and the city takes pretence."

"Should I order an attack on the University my lord?"

"No. if I learned anything on this world is that frontal assaults were a good way to waste troops. Find a map of the subway system and gan'arg down there to clean the ruble, we will be attacking from there."

"My lord, humans will just bury it down again."

"That's the point, let them cut off their own supply lines, that will weaken their presence in the city severely."

"As you wish." Natrezim complied and turned to leave.

_How should I dispose of him. _Reth'zaar thought. _Not yet. _He told himself, unlike many, the man'ari knew that the dreadlord was one of the most powerful creatures in the army, there have been many commanders and lords who ruled over it, but the second in command was always the same.

"Balnazzar, contact those few lords you mentioned, don't tell them anything specific, just to send their emissaries."

"Yes my lord." Dreadlord obeyed, then he turned and left.


	7. Chapter 6

Sorry for the long wait. At least this time it took me less than six months to do it (less then three) so I am improving. :)

**Important notice: this story's title will change to Children of War with next update.**

* * *

He shifted his gaze from the paperwork as he heard a light knock on the door. For a moment he thought of simply ignoring it to continue with the agonizing task of report reading. Pushing that thought aside he called out, for whoever was on the other side, to enter. Only for Him to do so. Up till now they met just three times, and every time he had to restrain himself from putting the men six feet under.

The Russian before him was as average as you could get. With a suit that every desk wormer could afford and a face that even a mother would have hard time describing, the younger agent was the pinnacle of 'that guy that I bumped into on the street'.

Waving his hand he beckoned his guest to take a seat, who promptly did so, flashing for a briefest moment an 'I know something you don't' smile that annoyed the older man to no end. Making him wonder if Russians had the 'how to annoy the hell out of CIA boss' training. They probably did.

But, in the end, he had to give it to the FSB*, the man before him was just a bit arrogant but friendly and communicative when need be, and when the situation called for it he was ruthless, cold and calculating. In other words, a perfect man for the kind of job they did.

(*FSB Russian intelligence agency, successor of KGB)

"Anything new?" he asked as he returned the brief smile with a blank stare. He might be an old man but he knew the rules of the game, hell he was at its very top.

"ISIS is making problems," said the FSB representative.

"They wouldn't be such a problem if you didn't supply them with weapons." He pointed out.

"You guys did it first." The Russian countered with a small grin.

_Not even thirty seconds in the room and already pissing me off. I just hope that John is pissing off Yuri as much as this one is frustrating. _With that thought he realized that he didn't know the agents name, to be fair he didn't even ask, nor did he offer his own, old habits die hard after all.

He stared at the Russian for some time before he decided to ask, "So what's happening over there, I have had trouble maintaining my sources since Washington." The older man was surprised when instead of a mocking smile or an arrogant comment, for admitting his weakness, he was met with a serious face. He liked the Russian more when he mocked him.

"Some of their more fanatical ringleaders have proclaimed that the aliens are demons sent by god to punish the western infidels."

_It's a joke, it has to be._

"We need to take out those ringleaders then, kill the sheppard and the flock falls apart."

"We already tried, killed a lot of people actually, but there are always new ones to replace them. What's worse is that the idea took hold among the populace and some of the ISIS' more prominent leaders are planning on using it to their advantage." They stared each other for a moment, before the younger agent continued answering his unasked question. "They aren't the ones behind it, we checked."

"And you tell me this because?" He already knew the answer.

"We need your inside contacts." Before he could answer the Russian continued, "don't deny it," he wasn't going to, "we know that you helped create IS, and now we need them on our side or gone, your inside agents can help with that."

"We didn't create IS." The CIA boss said, guiding the conversation to another end.

The look on the other agents face was fully in are you shitting me mode, but he quickly recovered, too quickly in his option, who was now developing a cocky smirk the Russian had just few minutes before.

"Let me rephrase that, we know that you knew where the organization was heading, you even supplied it and helped it grow, even directed more extreme people to it and then helped them take control over it. Satisfied?" Finished the FSB representative, his smile fell a bit when he saw his smirk.

"Yes, but don't you have your own agents inside? You couldn't have know all that without them, a well developed network of them."

"We do, but if we are too quickly find out who is creating the alien supporting faction inside the Islamic state and through them the connection to aliens."

"You are suspecting them to be behind it?"

"Who else, no one benefits from this, no one. I have read reports from back home, the towns and cities that were liberated in Eastern Europe were empty, the fucking monsters massacred everything, man women and children. Hell they even failed to press on several advantages they had just to do that." Russian replied, and he had to congratulate him on his self control, while his voice was calm his eyes betrayed a cold fury that threatened to burst out.

The sad truth was that he could name few dozen people that would benefit from this, at least short term. But those weren't a threat, not when looking on the large scale, every war had a parallel power grab, or other way around, but the resources, no matter how meager, used for it could be used somewhere else with greater effect. Especially in this kind of war. He could use this as an excuse to seize some of their assets, god knew he would use them for something useful.

But if not short, then log term, but who and why? Who could or would do it, did someone plan on aliens wining, or worse, actively help them win? And why? Were they, whoever they were, threatened, unlikely that kind of motivation usually backfired. Were they bribed, but with what, or did they approach the aliens on their own. Anyway their plans depended on aliens wining, and as far as he knew the war was progressing well for humanity. Yes casualties were enormous, especially civilian, but most of the largest industrial centers were in human control, major supply lines were mostly undisturbed, and there were still billions upon billions of potential soldiers or workers human race could rely on.

"So, do we have your support on this?" The FSB representative broke him out of his musings.

"I trust that this is not like that case with those Satanists that your boss went ballistic over."

"No, this one is real treat, someone betrayed not only our states but humanity in general, and he or she has to be dealt with, fast."

"Ok, but there is a condition if you want my agents," he replied after some thought, "actually there are two conditions." Seeing younger agent's questioning gaze he continued. "Firsts you have to tell me what you are planning to use these men for after you deal with the current situation."

"And the second?"

"After."

"Very well." S_omething's wrong. _The elder agent noticed almost immediately, and he didn't like it, the tone the Russian used was mechanical, like a soldier reporting to his superior, he doesn't like doing it and his superiors won't like it ether.

_Is he really that concerned about what's happening over there, or better yet are Russians that desperate to get it done. _That thought got him thinking, the KGB agent already knew about how Islamic State came to be, although it was basic stuff he knew that he could recite those happenings in far greater detail. He also remembered that he said that they checked who was spreading pro-alien propaganda and they came up with nothing.

CIA almost never came up with nothing, he suspected that it was the same with FSB. Someone or something had resources to completely bypass one of the best information agencies on the planet and stay hidden.

Another thought came to his mind, or better said a question, why didn't the US launch its nukes when alien ships first hit Earth's atmosphere. USA and Russia, the only countries that had missiles that could reach that high. The deal was stack to nuke the unresponsive aliens to kingdom come, Russians were to shield their own territory, eastern Europe and China, US was responsible for Canada and western Europe. And then the president changed his mind, three hours before launch, while he was inside Cheyenne Complex.

_Did Russians notice this. _One look at the FSB agent that was going into detail of how they are going to deal with ISIS, convinced him that they did. _And if that's so at least ninety percent of what he is spewing is bullshit. _He quickly gathered himself so his contra part wouldn't notice his distraught.

_Yuri really did send his best._

"… after that the Islamic state could assist Israeli and Egyptians in retaking Sues canal and later Nile valley. If not we could destabilize it and make them kill each other like they have been doing till now. Is that satisfactory?"

"Yes." He replied faking interest, his mind already working on how to solve the newly reviled information. "The second condition is that the commander of the military wing of the Project be an American."

"He can't be under the rank of colonel and we have to approve of him."

"Deal." He extended his hand and the younger man took it, his grim face long gone replaced with that arrogant smirk he was known for. It made him wonder just how much authority he had in FSB.

"Since we are in deal making business," Russian operative said, "this is the main reason why I am bothering you today." He pulled out a rather large and silver memory stick. "These are plans for the malchick and the process how to make it, I trust you have what we asked for."

"Yes, yes of course. I have it on my computer." He said as he received the hard drive, not really believing that the Russians would part with one of their most guarded secrets for two failed projects.

When Soviet Union tested tsar bomba back in sixty one everyone in US who knew about it was scared shitless, it showed that Russians knew how to make really big bombs, and what's worse had a system to deliver them. On the other side of the iron curtain Russians realized that such bombs were impractical and made one eighty turn and decided to make the smallest nuke ever made.

The result was malchick, with point eight kiloton yield and almost zero radiation residue.

"This can't be right."

"What?"

"It says here that the device is two meters long and weights almost three tons." He explained and eyed the Russian.

"I don't know the details but I was told that although the core is small the device that forces it to detonate is rather complicated, thus the size. You thought it was smaller?"

"Honestly, yes. Much smaller. What about nuclear contamination?"

"There is some, but insignificant. The only problem is the undetonated part of the core, it can produce problems if it gets into water system or something similar. It's the size of a marble and can easily be found with radiation meter."

"What about the effectiveness?"

"We only had two, both were tested against enemy ships. Up to eight hundred meters it will strip them of their shields and severely or critically damage the hulls of the smaller ones, for the next kilometer it will weaken their shields and after that almost no effect." In that moment the transfer finished and he handed the memory stick back.

"There. The molecular structure and the explanation how to make the carbon-titan fibers together with AHMI."

The titan-carbon fiber was first invented as a light but durable and hard replacement for the steal parts of the modern tank armor, but was too expensive and it took too long to make it to be an viable war material. On the other hand AHMI or advanced human to machine interface was an old tech that Russians had as well, there was even civilian attempts to connect human nervous system with a computer, but those as well as AHMI could transfer only the basic commands and couldn't directly feed the information back to do user. It the end it was too slow for ether the information gathering or combat use.

_Guess Russians will try to combine it with their own system._

"You said that you had only two bombs?"

"Yes?" Replied the FSB operative.

"I am assuming that you are making more, so haw fast is that going?"

"That's correct, we are making more but the process is slow, we started as soon as we saw how effective was the first one and that was about a week after the aliens attacked, so the first five will be ready by the end of the next month."

"Four months for five bombs?" When the younger agent nodded he continued. "During the Soviet Union you were making much bigger ones much faster."

"Yes, but as I said the device is fairly complicated, and malchick was also an experimental weapon it takes time to make a production line for those. Some of our scientists were confident that they could speed up the process to ten a month before the year ends."

"That's nice and all but what about us. It will take our boys at least half a year to make and test one, not to mention the construction of the whole production chain." This was more and more looking like he traded nothing for almost nothing.

"We knew that, that is why there is a shipment on its way with the equipment used to make them, also one of the five will be sent your way for your study." Russian clarified.

"That will be appreciated. Anyway concerning the Project, our package, did it arrive?"

"Yes, we were able to extract it out of Vladivostok before the city was lost. It's on its way to Siberia right now. As for the scientists they are all there, except few?"

"Doctor Zimmermann is dead. Others are in occupied areas, it will take time to extract them."

"That is understandable." His contra part agreed.

"What about the others?"

"Chinese package already arrived along with men we asked for, Korea was able to send few of the scientists, while we had to extract Professor Sakamoto from Japan. As for the Europeans, everyone already sent what we asked for, excluding few people that are dead or missing, except France, but that was expected."

"Those are good news I presume?"

"Those are excellent news. We were able to gather more resources then in our best predictions and they are still arriving." He sighted. "Sometimes I am grateful that the aliens are more focused on massacring the civilians then actually vital military targets."

It was a cruel statement, but he had to agree with it. More than once the aliens were pushed back or encircled because they failed to push their advantage just so that their soldiers could enjoy some manhunt. They also left encircled or bypassed troops be, letting them to start a guerilla campaign.

"They are relying too much on their portals and the ability to summon troops directly to the battlefield." The older man concluded. "Ah, I just remembered as I mentioned the portals. Am I right to assume that your guys didn't crack them?"

"What? Portals?" The Russian snorted. "They don't know where the ON switch is, let alone figured out how they work. You had the same results?" He answered with a nod, and the FSB agent sighted second time that day. "You know, maybe it's really magic."

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The CIA boss quoted.

"Arthur Clarke. I know. But still, as I read reports that are arriving daily I am more and more inclined to believe that it really is magic. Also it seems that soldiers on the front are more at ease with fighting a magic wielding demons then extremely advanced aliens. It doesn't help that they look like demons from holy texts and fiction." He explained. "And that can't be a coincidence."

"I agree, but for now we made no connections. You?" The Russian shook his head and he continued. "It doesn't help that the aliens that we captured don't speak any known language or if they do they spat half insane nonsense."

"I know how frustrating that can be." Younger man agreed. "It doesn't help that some of our interrogators started to actually agree with the aliens." That surprised him, he received no reports about similar events among his interrogators. _Yet_ _another thing to look into. _"Some are actually suspecting that some of the alien species are capable of mild control or are at possession of an idea suggesting ability. Had to shoot some of our interrogators because of that. Anyway we are using most of them for weapon testing, there are some interesting results with biolo…"

"Sorry to interrupt sir." Said an agent that just entered the room. "Section fourteen sent a report sir, video format." As he said that he handed over an yellow envelop, after that he took his leave. Inside was a single data pad with a note attached. Yesterday, New York, 3:46, center right. He removed the note and activated the data pad, its screen coming to life.

There was no sound, just a video of four US marines taking heavy fire and returning some whenever they could. He skipped until the written time and forced his full attention on the center right side of the screen. It showed a single female marine standing up while a whole spectrum of energy attacks exploded around her. There was something strange going on, but he couldn't put his finger on it, so he watched it again, and again.

It was on the fifth try that he finally noticed it. _How could I be so blind. _He eyed the Russian. _Should I tell him. _He decided to do it, and handed over the data pad. "I believe this is Project material."

The FSB agent watched the video couple of times before his eyes went wide. "I agree. She is Project material. Retrieving her is top priority."

"Agreed. As a matter of fact I already have a unit in the city. If she is still alive we will have her."

"A corpse could be useful if she isn't. And I believe that this is my time to leave." When the Russian received a nod he stood up. As he watched him leave he remembered something.

"Wait." When the younger agent turned he continued. "I never asked you, what's your name?" For some reason he felt stupid for asking, he was sure Yuri mentioned his pseudonym at the document that arrived with the man, so he could check there. But it was something in him telling it himself, that compelled him to ask.

"Ivan Ivanov."

"That's not very imaginative."

"No its not." He replied with a chuckle. "Yours?"

He considered not answering, but decided against it, it was only a fake name after all. "John Smith."

"That's not very imaginative ether."

"No its not." Ivan smiled and left.

John picked up his phone and called for his secretary.

"Sera, connect me with general Thomas."


End file.
